Aboitiz Group upskills team members on DSAI, innovation

MANILA, Philippines — The Aboitiz Group has leveled up its foray into the data science and artificial intelligence (DSAI) space with the upskilling of its team members and promoting a data-driven culture across the organization.

Part of the group’s initiative is to enable its Strategic Business Units (SBUs) to build and sustain their respective data science teams by training team members on the fundamentals of data science and analytics.

Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI) Data Solutions III Head Marwell Dalangin said the upskilling program commenced with Aboitiz Power subsidiary SN AboitizPower’s (SNAP) Data Acquisition, Reporting, and Analytics (DARnA) program, which was launched last year. The same program will soon be cascaded to other SBUs.

“To develop citizen data scientists across the group, we encourage current employees to participate. These homegrown data scientists will implement capstone projects at the end of the program,” Dalangin noted.

ADI made a test case of SNAP through the DARnA program. For SNAP, DSAI may be applied in forecasting—price, demand and inflow of water—through the use of historical data.

Dalangin added that the program caters to team members who particularly have a strong interest in transforming data into insights and outcomes and are willing to learn new skills to further improve their current functions.

DARnA employed several activities that would ensure program optimization. These include data literacy assessment, creating a rubrics for data scientist position, and the actual training sessions, among others.

Sessions include Data and AI Vision and Strategy Cookbook; Building DSAI Organization and Identifying the Right Use Case; How to Build a DSAI Technical Roadmap; and Data Science and Machine Learning/Deep Learning Pipeline Technical Workshop.

ACI upskills through UBP Xcellerator

Aboitiz Construction Inc. (ACI) and UnionBank of the Philippines (UBP) also signed a Memorandum of Agreement recently to train 1,000 ACI team members through UBP’s Xcellerator Program.

“With the  Xcellerator program, Aboitiz Construction will be able to equip, tool, and re-skill team members in design thinking, project management, and storytelling. These are all essential capabilities in our company-wide effort to cultivate innovation.  We look forward to more Xcellerator courses in the future,” said ACI Division Chief for Enterprise Risk, Organization Performance, Corporate Affairs and Service Nina Ylagan-Pedro.

The UBP Xcellerator Program aims to revolutionize the virtual learning environment. This program serves as a one-stop learning resource that offers various learning programs aligned with digital capability building and emerging technologies such as blockchain, data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Application Programming Interface (API).

UnionBank is committed to fulfill its mission to provide technology-focused training courses to produce better-trained and more competent Filipinos.

“Partnering with an Aboitiz company is always a joy to begin with. People want to future-proof themselves to become relevant. We are really excited because we are bringing this program to many communities and we are more excited because we are bringing these programs closer to home,” UBP Chief Human Resources Officer Michelle Rubio said.

ACI kicked off 2021 with its Big Shift strategy, a comprehensive business pivot that will enable the company to achieve business recovery and bring new value. Part of this strategy is the SHIFT Program, an innovation program that aims to improve the company’s processes and systems and to find solutions towards execution excellence.

The Xcellerator program is also anchored on the digital transformation efforts of ACI to deliver quality learning and development programs for its team members.