ICT Davao launches scholarship program

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

MORE than 2,000 scholarship vouchers are being given away to young Dabawenyos after the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) granted a stimulus package to the Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO).

Of the P400 million allocated, P89 million is allotted for the countryside, with some P31 million of the budget going to Mindanao.

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The package will be allocated through Tesda's Industry-Based Training for Work Scholarship Program (I-TWSP) focusing on four career lines, namely contact/call center training, software development, animation and medical transcription.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Davao president Lizabel "Wit" Holganza launched the scholarship program during the regular Club 888 media forum at the Marco Polo Hotel Wednesday.

"We welcome the government's initiative in pushing ICT Industry forward. This industry is volatile as we are competing with so many cities in the world and we appreciate this help," lawyer Sam Matunog of the Davao Software Industry Inc. said.

He said training software developers is costly and with the I-TWSP, the government will be preserving the city's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) pool of talents.

"The I-TWSP is timely given to us and we are privilege to be given the voucher, though we are ranked number one in voice (interact with customers through voice) other countries are also keeping up, this will be an investment for the BPO industry to focus on training and development," said Belinda Laya-Torres, president of JoBS Academy.

Scholarship vouchers for the IT-BPO Industry under the I-TWSP should have at least these minimum requirements for contact centers: proficient in English, computer literacy or are familiar with at least one or two software programs.

"Everyone is welcome to apply for the scholarship those who are high school graduates, college graduates, overseas Filipino workers who have decided to stay and work here as long as they have the skills and they have passed the minimum requirements can qualify," Holganza said.

She added that Tesda regulation require that 70 percent of those to be trained must be hired.

ICT Davao have partnered with MTC Academy, a Tesda-accredited medical transcriptionist school with 180 openings for scholarship and Philippine College of Technology with 200 slots. The JoBS Academy will cater to the software developers of Davao.

"We will not be feeling the impact of these trainings now, but later in 2012 the biggest impact will be felt as we are investing in Knowledge Process Outsourcing," Matunog said.