Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Smart's Adis expands network of partner schools
SMART Communication's Application Developers' Intro School (Adis) program is successfully expanding its network of partner schools barely two years after it was launched.
Adis is an IT elective based on a program given to newly hired personnel of Smart Communications Inc. It was initially offered in three universities, Adis now benefits 13 colleges and 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 numer one 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 was already partner schools of Smart through the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (Sweep).
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.
The program has gained momentum. "All Ateneo schools in Visayas and Mindanao are now on board," shares Ramos. "Forty students in PUP have already benefited from the program. We are also partnering with Holy Name University in Bohol."
Moreover, Adis now benefits three Centers for Excellence and five Centers for Development that are non-Sweep partner schools, including CIT and CSB. Ramos explains that they are especially branching out in Visayas and Mindanao to ensure that program beneficiaries are not limited to schools in Luzon, especially Manila.
Ramos shares that Adis continues to have a positive impact on students and teachers alike. Many teachers, he says, are interested to attend the training of trainers. "Since a lot of them lack industry training, they see Adis as a way to make up forr it."
Meanwhile, the student really appreciates the elective because it gives them a holistic view of their four-year IT education.
"In PUP, for example, the students are glad to know what a complete system looks like. Adis integrates all that they learned in the last four years. In addition, they have become aware that Smart hires a lot of IT professionals, not just engineers." In fact, some of the first Adis beneficiaries have already applied for employment and are scheduled to begin work in Smart on April and May.
Ramos adds that they are also planning to enhance Adis through a couple of additional program features. To supplement the training of trainers, they plan to put in place an immersion program designed by Paolo Villaflores, IT manager for applications development. This would enable teachers to train in Smart for one or two months, allowing them to experience firsthand what happens in the industry.
Ramos says they also plan to influence the thesis topics of IT students "so that they can work on what's relevant to the industry." This will open the door to company-sponsored thesis projects (either by Smart or other companies that may be interested in the topic).
Ramos is scheduled to hold the next training of trainers in May at CSB. "There will be at least 20 participants from five to seven partner schools," he says. (Press release)
