IT teachers urged to join mobile solution competition

IT teachers affected by the K+12 education program encouraged to come up with mobile business solutions and enter their ideas in a competition slated next year

INFORMATION technology (IT) teachers affected by the country’s K+12 education program can find opportunities by participating in a business mobile solutions competition planned for January 2017.

Cebuano entrepreneur Anthony Gerard Leuterio, chief executive officer of Leuterio Realty and Brokerage, disclosed that he recently met with Dr. Greg Gabison, president of Cebu Educational Development for Information Technology Inc., (Cedf-IT) to start the development of an “angel investors” community in Cebu.

One of the ideas that came out is the business mobile solutions competition that aims to engage developers and IT enthusiasts, including teachers, into developing applications that would be helpful in business.

“The concern now is how to help these IT teachers that would be affected by the K+12 program. While some teachers have started looking for other opportunities like joining real estate brokerage, we thought of creating a pro- gram that would make use of their skills,” said Leuterio.

“There are plenty of problems in the country, also in business, and one way to help address these issues is to come up with solutions. Mobile applications are a big hit these days, with people now glued to their gadgets,” he added.

Leuterio emphasized that unlike other app development competitions, apps that will be developed during the competition will be IP-protected to avoid duplication.

He also plans to pitch this planned activity to investors so these apps would gain funding and market access. Leuterio said he is willing to act as venture capitalist and is even open to link Cebuano innovators to his network of investors from all over the world.

Earlier, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) bared plans to create a group of investors for local startups.

CCCI president Melanie Ng said that instead of looking for capitalists to fund a good innovation or business idea, the startup community will be linked with industry players to know industry players’ requirement.

According to the country’s startup road map, the Philippines’ digital startup industry is still in its infancy but tech startup ideas have already drawn interest among the tech-savvy population in the country, a positive indicator that the industry is set to flourish in the coming years should assistance and resources be provided.

By 2018, the Startup Roadmap targets to achieve at least 500 Philippine startups with a cumulative valuation of $2 billion, resulting in the creation of 8,500 highskilled jobs, 1,250 startup founders, 15 million users acquired, and 719,737 paying customers.