K to 12 good for IT/BPM talent pool

The Cebu IT/BPM Organization (CIB.O), formerly Cedf-it, is taking advantage of the first products of the K to 12 education system to supply the talent requirements of the information technology-business process management industry in Cebu.

CIB.O president Gregg Gabison said that while they will transform into a full-time organization addressing the high-value service requirements of the industry, they will remain as the industry’s linkage to the academe in terms of talent development.

“We are taking advantage of the K to 12 phenomenon,” said Gabison. “CIB.O will work closely with the academe sector to help introduce or infuse specialization tracks that suit the requirements of the outsourcing sector.”

These specialization tracks include business analytics, information and security, and data mining and analytics.

Gabison believes equipping the K to 12 students with these special courses will allow them to gain better employability in an industry that is moving up to offer high-value services or the so-called knowledge process outsourcing, such as finance and accounting, creative services, billing and collections, document digitization and search engines, engineering design, financial and legal research, human resource management, medical transcription and coding, and publishing.

Under the K to 12 program, students may enter the workforce after finishing senior high school, or pursue college education. The additional two years in high school will be equivalent to two years of college in the old curriculum.

The Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) strongly supports the K to 12 program, saying it is going to boost the country’s IT-BPM industry. Ibpap has partnered with some educational institutions in the country to develop a curriculum for students who want to pursue a career in the business process outsourcing industry.

At the end of 2016, a total of 130,260 workers were employed in the IT-BPM sector in Cebu City, and P3.8 billion in salaries was given out per month. /