THE Information Technology (IT) industry in the city urged colleges and universities offering IT courses to review and revise curriculum and focus more on the students' exposure on technical practices.
Developers Connect (DevCon)-Davao Chapter Head Jaymar Somosot, during a press conference on Friday, August 25, at SM Lanang premier, said many IT graduates in the city do not apply for a software or web developing jobs as most said they are not confident of what they have learned during their stay in college.
"It is important that IT students are exposed to real-life applications so that they will be trained hands-on to the hows and what's in developing a software or applications and not just to lock them up in a room and let them read," Somosot said.
Half of the developers' population in the country, Somosot said, are not IT graduates which shows that most developing companies are now after those graduates who have experiences on technical applications regardless of the course graduated.
He said colleges and universities must allow its IT students to engage with professional ITs and bring them to web developing conferences such as the event that DevCon will host in the city on October 7 at Apo View Hotel.
On its seventh year in the IT industry, Somosot said DevCon will bring the biggest developer conference in the country to Davao City as the organization has seen many potential student developers and train them through various programs and forum.
He said 800 IT students and experts from the city and neighboring provinces will arrive in the event. The conference will feature talks on IT startups, virtual reality, web and development, and machine learning - all in an effort to promote the growth and competence of Dabawenyo developers.
"Through this initiative, we hope to bridge the gap between the trends in National Capital Region (NCR) to empower the locals in creating collaborative innovation," Sonosot said.
He added that the organization looks forward to the cooperation of the universities and colleges to produce more equipped and skilled IT students for a strengthened IT industry in the city.