IN THE BPO SECTOR: Masteral IT studies opened to address manpower crisis

CEBU, Philippines - The University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College (UPVCC) re-launches its Master of Science in Computer Science program to help address the scarcity of mid-management manpower supply and ICT innovators in Cebu.

UPVCC chairman for Department of Computer Science (DCS) Robert R. Roxas announced that this program is first in Cebu and is now in its second-year of implementation.

The program is an adoption of UP Diliman’s MSCS program of the DCS under the College of Engineering. It started accepting enrollees in May of 2009 with an opening intake of 31-parttime students mostly from the IT industry, of which majority came from Lexmark Research and Development Corporation (LRDC)

Roxas said the program was initially offered in response to the clamor from IT industry partners for the academe to offer trainings to their employees instead of sending them out of Cebu to pursue advanced studies.

Australian BPO firm Tech Growth Solutions Cebu Inc., chairman and director for finance Michael Burdette said for Cebu to take off as a preferred BPO destination, it needs to immediately address the manpower shortage problem.

Likewise, Wipro BPO Philippines Ltd. Inc., country head Romit Gupta echoed Burdette’s sentiment saying it is so hard to hire competent personnel for managerial and supervisory positions.

Hiring entry-level employees, on the other hand, is not a problem.

Both, Burdette and Gupta urged the academe in Cebu to provide programs that would increase the number of mid-management manpower, so that Cebu will continually attract big-ticket investors in BPO and IT.

UPVCC’s program focuses on developing a “research culture” among its students, aside from the given imperative of advancing their technical skills in Computer Science, so that after finishing the program they will be prepared and capable to conduct independently their own research work in their respective work places.

“Hence, to this end, we believe that ‘research’ is the main cause and driver in generating new knowledge and spurring development,” Roxas added.

On the other hand, Roxas said that highly qualified faculty members of the Department of Computer Science whose diverse fields of specializations provide various benefits for the students to choose their research topics in the latter part of the program.

“To cap it all, UPVCC-DCS is a Center of Excellence [COE], in IT Education Awardee given by the Commission of Higher Education [CHED], which recognizes the top quality education or program offering of the department,” Roxas said.

Cebu is the home of brilliant technology innovators, software developers, the reason why big names in the technology industry are locating their multi-million-dollar research and development facilities here. However, the number of talented innovators and good IT managers here is depleting, as most of them are getting high-paying employment abroad.