DICT assures investors of stable talent supply

CEBU, Philippines - The soon to be declared Department of Information, Communication and Technology (DICT) assured investors of stable talent supply anticipating the rapid growth of the IT and business process outsourcing sectors.

Ramoncito Ibrahim, deputy director of DOST-ICTO, which will soon be converted to DICT, said the entry of K to12 batches this year will flood good employment supply for the country, and this is seen to aid the manpower requirement of the outsourcing sector.

Ibrahim, who spoke during the "Cebu Tourism and IT/BPM Recognition Night," hosted by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), as part of the Cebu Business Month 2016 events, said that the Philippines will continue to build talents for the sector.

Ibrahim also attributed the newly approved tracks of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the business analytics and service management to boost the requirement of outsourcing sector particularly in the higher value operations.

The Philippines is way ahead to hit the 1.4 million mark of total outsourcing jobs with revenue of US$25 billion, he projected.

Ibrahim who spoke before the top executives of outsourcing giants in Cebu, such as Convergys, JP Morgan and Chase, Accenture, Lexmark, IBM, among others, who accepted the awards in behalf of their companies, said that the DICT's direction is to develop the countryside talent pool, considering that 75 percent of the graduates in the country comes from outside of Metro Manila.

According to Ibrahim, his office will continue to encourage universities and colleges to offer business analytics and service management courses, so that supply of high powered talents will be sustained and even improved.

Recently,  the IT and Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (iBPAP) met with the upcoming cabinet members in a bid to seek support in accelerating goals of providing white-collar, high paying jobs for Filipinos.

iBPAP co-founder and former chairman Rainerio "Bong" Borja  said that industry players already told the next decision makers in the government that in order for the Philippines to make another one million or more jobs in the outsourcing sector, the issue on talent should be urgently addressed.

At present, the outsourcing industry in the Philippines is employing 1.3 million people, contributing 7.3 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Cebu is employing roughly 130 thousand.

For every direct employment in the IT/BPM, an additional 2.5 jobs are created in industries that support the sector. Industries that are frontline beneficiaries of the over US$10 billion in employee consumer spending are real estate, telcos, retail, food, transport, banking and travel.

According to Borja, in the outsourcing business demand is not a problem, what keeps the industry from growing is the availability of qualified talent, readiness of next wave cities, and other issues that need government interventions. —(FREEMAN)