THE National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) vowed to work closely with the academe to introduce its “work-from-school” program, an initiative that aims to scale up the government’s rural impact sourcing program.
“We will be developing a business model that will allow wider implementation of the program. One area, we are looking at is to work with the academe for the “work- from-school” program,” said NICP president Antonio del Carmen.
The “work-from-school” program is an offshoot of the “work-from-home” program currently being implemented by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and partner local government units (LGUs).
Del Carmen said the organization will help craft a curriculum or business model that will introduce students to online jobs.
“By introducing this program in schools, we would be able to increase competence of students and provide opportunity for them to earn,” he said, adding that students would have better chances of grabbing higher value online jobs because they are trained early on.
Del Carmen said collaborating with the academe would help them upgrade the talent ecosystem of the industry, which is now pivoting to higher value services following the emergence of automation in business.
DICT is working with the different LGUs to conduct ICT technical skills and creating ICT-enabled jobs in the province.
Besides capacitating students with the needed ICT skills, the NICP official also vowed to enhance the entrepreneurial program of the academe.
Del Carmen said they aim to inspire graduates to not merely settle as employees after they graduate but to also become employers one day. With ICT skills they will get, they could become startup technopreneurs, or even become big in the global online marketplace.
“We aim to not just create ripples for this program but big waves to create an impact in the countryside in forms of job generation, among others,” said del Carmen.
Del Carmen, who is from the Laguna Industry Network for Knowledge, Innovation and Technology (LINK-IT), said the goal of NICP this year is to develop a more conducive relationship with all industry associations, especially those who are actively involved in human resource development and calibration.
NICP and its member councils will work together to accelerate enabling conditions, such as infrastructure, government processes and business environment better and lobby for investors incentives especially in provincial areas, where a high sense of business confidence must be in place.