Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Smart's Adis expands network of schools
SMART's Adis program is successfully expanding its network of partner schools barely two years after it was launched.
Application Developers' Intro School (Adis) is an IT elective based on a program given to newly hired personnel of Smart Communications Inc. initially offered in three universities.
"Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) and College of St. Benilde (CSB) are among the schools that were recently added to our list of partners," says Ronald L. Ramos.
Ramos is Smart's IT specialist who conducts the two-week training sessions to familiarize teachers with the technologies and course materials.
"We are exploring partnerships with schools that were identified by Ched as Centers for Excellence and Centers for Development in IT Education," he explains. Centers for Excellence are those schools that produce the best graduates in IT, while Centers for Development are engaged in a lot of IT research work.
Adis is designed to advance IT education in the country.
It contributes to the employability of students by bridging the gap between their skills set and the requirements of companies looking to hire them.
As the no. 1 mobile services provider, Smart is also a leading company in the application of IT technologies. Smart sponsors the training of trainers and provides the course materials for Adis.
When Adis was launched in 2006, Ramos says they first approached Centers for Excellence that were already partner schools of Smart through the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweeo).
Although Sweep focused on improving the level of technology and engineering education in the country, particularly in the field of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE), 13 out of the 40 SWEEP partner schools are also known for producing good IT graduates.
Thus, to facilitate the process during the first few months of Adis, they began by inviting these 13 schools.
Consequently, Adis was first offered in the three schools that immediately signed up for it: Ateneo De Manila University (Admu), University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu and Holy Angels University (HAU) in Pampanga.
