DECIDING on what course to take up in college is a critical decision high school students make. It can make or break their future.
A few years ago, students who were into technology were only limited to few college courses such as Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BS IT), BS Computer Science, and BS Computer Engineering.
These courses do not satiate the young talents' hearts whose inclination calls for a more profound and intensive trainings like in animation and game development, these being mere afterthought before.
The result: they end up pursuing courses that are at least close to their passion for lack of choices. Sometimes, this is one of the underlying causes of job mismatch later on.
The lack of training institutions is, in fact, singled by the 2013 JobsFit as one of the issues and challenges that this relatively young industry is faced with.
The memorandum order No. 2 series of 2013 issued by Commission of Higher Education (Ched), creating the policies, standards, and guidelines for the BS Entertainment and Multimedia Computing (BS EMC) is one proof that academic institutions saw the industry's clamor for specific skill set.
The BS EMC gives focus on game development while the animation, which is currently a short course, can be availed through the Industry-Based Training for Work Scholarship Program (I-TWSP) of the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
Such is one laudable move in an effort to put a dent on the lingering problems on unemployment, underemployment, and job's mismatch in the country, at least for this one sector. Both game development and animation fall under IT-BPO, cited as a fast-rising industry that can possibly scout for more young talented individuals based on the JobsFit 2013.
Home-based online workers, for instance, scratch a fortune right at the comfort of their home.
According to the CHED memorandum order, EMC is the study and use of concepts, principles, and techniques of computing in the design and development of multimedia products and solutions. It includes various applications in science, entertainment, education, simulators, and advertising.
"We have a very good game development industry, it is actually growing. So right now the biggest problem that we are facing in the industry is not enough talents," said Solon Chen, president of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP).
Chen and his group, being at the frontline of the country's game development, pushed for the inclusion of BS EMC as one of the courses to be offered in college.
Among the in-demand jobs in this industry are visual artist designers, sales representatives, and programmers while the hard-to-fill vacancies are programmers, computer artist, technical support administrator, animator, and video editor.
Now is the time that students should consider looking at the other opportunities, because really some "underrated" industries have wider space to accommodate an endless stream of job applicants.