Concerns rise on dwindling enrollment in tech courses

CEBU, Philippines — Information & Communications Technology (ICT) industry prime movers want the Philippines to produce more technology related skills as concerns rise on the waning number of enrollees in computer science courses.

Software engineers, data analysts, data scientists are just the few of the lucrative professions that will be in demand in the next few years, and this need should be given attention right now by the academe, parents and high school students, said Joey Gurango, founder of Coders Guild, and former president of the Philippine Software Association of the Philippines (PSIA).

“The most wanted jobs today and the future are software engineers, data analysts, data scientists,” said Gurango expressing fears that if the declining interest of young generation to enroll in computer science or related engineering courses, the Philippines will be missing a golden opportunity in terms of employment growth and big investments.

Based on the latest data on the state of Philippine programming talent, of the 1,014 schools in the country (85 percent outside of Manila), only 600 of the schools have consistently offered Computer Science and BS IT (Bachelor of Science in Information Technology).According to Gurango there is a 90 percent reduction of Computer Science and IT graduates in the country for school year 2019-2020.

Even in the K-12 level, interest among students to take on preparatory subjects for programming have declined.

“We have to do something about this.” said Gurango emphasizing that parents can help solve this concern by introducing program engineering or data scientist are as lucrative as other professions.

The declining talent pool in computer and technology has put the Philippines behind in terms of producing programmers around the world.

“We don’t have enough programmers to fuel the IT industry. Founders of IG, Facebook, Twitter, etc., take note—they are all programmers,” he underscored. (FREEMAN)