DICT aims to produce over 2T RIS graduates

More Filipinos are expected to get job contracts online as the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) aims to produce over 2,000 rural impact sourcing (RIS) graduates this year.

These initial graduates will start a strong movement in mentoring more Filipinos to exploit the jobs being available online, from graphic arts, content writing, company branding, encoding, social media engagements, and thousands of lists for job contracts.

This was announced by DICT undersecretary Monchito Ibrahim yesterday during the 2nd Philippine Impact Sourcing Conference (PISCON) held at the Waterfront Cebu Hotel and Casino.

Since the RIS program was introduced two years ago in close coordination with active local government units (LGUs) all over the country, it already produced 534 graduates. Another 1,625 are expected to take the training program this year from 65 LGUs. These new graduates will strengthen the movement of working from home.

This over 2,000 RIS graduates are expected to join over a million Filipinos now contracting freelancing jobs online, They are also expected to train or mentor in their respective localities on getting employment online.

Under this program, DICT is not only working with LGUs, but also other industry groups like the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), the Digital Career Advocates of the Philippines (DCAP), and the two largest online job brokers Upwork and Freelancer.

According to DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio, Jr., aside from reaching out to more LGUs to actively participate in this program, DICT is also working on accelerating the entry of a third network provider in order to lower the internet cost in the country.

DICT's budget for this particular program, have also been increased for the immediate implementation of the program and to encourage talented Filipinos to participate.

RIS is a technical training program that promotes ICT-enabled jobs as high economic activity in rural communities, which are not yet ready to host IT-BPM operations.

Known also as the home-based outsourcing (HBO), the industry is growing exponentially in the Philippines, making the country as the third largest online freelancers in the world.