Orange & Bronze, PSITE partnership to develop skilled software teachers

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is currently the number two information technology outsourcing destination in the world after India, with a projected $1 billion in export revenue expected this year. However, it is facing stiff competition from several other countries, and its competitiveness is threatened by the difficulties faced by the country’s educational system.

Tens of thousands of IT students graduate every year, yet only a tiny fraction is able to find employment. At the same time, thousands of high-paying IT positions remain unfilled. Research points to a wide gap in what students are learning at schools and the requirements of industry.

In an effort to address this gap, the National Capital Region (NCR) chapter of the Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators (PSITE) has partnered with software development company Orange & Bronze Software Labs (O&B), through the coordination of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) to be among the core providers of training for this year’s PSITE-NCR Enablement Seminar Series (ESS). The goal of these training courses is to develop a core community of educators who can better prepare students for the requirements of industry.

According to John Ruero, president of PSITE-NCR, the enablement seminars, started three years ago with the goal of empowering IT educators. “Our academe can be globally competitive in providing quality IT education, given the right training and resources. The enablement seminars answer a part of the need to uplift the skills competencies and proficiency of our educators.”

O&B will be conducting the seminars on “Object-oriented Design (OOD) and Best Practices” for free. Two more seminars will be sponsored by different companies which will tackle information technology research, and robotics and embedded systems.

According to O&B CEO Calen Legaspi, “O&B has been providing free training and other support to the academe almost since the company began, through cooperation with various organizations, since we believe that the academe is the foundation of our industry. We believe that it is the responsibility of Philippine software companies to give back to the academe since the entire ecosystem of the industry hinges on the quality of our academic institutions.”

PSITE is one of the biggest organizations of IT educators in the country. Its thrust is to build Filipino trainers in information and communications technology (ICT) at the academic stage where many professionals in the field of ICT would start. The oganization has several thousand members and has partnered with a number of schools where ICT courses are offered.

Among the NCR schools who are participating in the ESS that would last until 2012 are the Asia Pacific College, Asian Institute of Maritime Studies, TIP Manila, St. Paul University, University of Asia and the Pacific, San Sebastian College, FEU-EAC and Don Bosco Technical College.