To address skills mismatch Biz community urged to work with academe

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu business community should work closely with the academe to reach out to potential students and teach them about entrepreneurship to prepare them for real work in the industry.

This according to Consul General Robert “Bobby” Joseph, a pillar of the country’s tourism industry, urging members of the business industry to visit different schools and do seminars on marketing, selling and entrepreneurship.

“We also do this in tourism, molding movers and shapers and promoting good acts, values, skills and attitudes for them to be equipped in entering the industry,” Joseph noted during Tuesday’s 888 News Forum.

Joseph, chairman emeritus of the National Association of Independent Travel and Tours, said the skills mismatch is one of the problems the Philippines needs to solve as it prepares for the ASEAN Economic Integration come 2015.

Joseph also expressed the need to mold young people to become entrepreneurs.

Industry experts should also try to visit the academic curriculum to upgrade the learning program of the students in the field of entrepreneurship, suggested Virgilio Espeleta, entrepreneurship consultant of this year’s Cebu Business Month.

Officials and members of CBM 2014 were the main guests of the forum.

He said they have partnered with a univesity in Cebu to teach students and technopreneurs and expose them to possibilities of technology-based startups.

CBM’s entrepreneurship team is inviting people from the Asian Institute of Management and Marketing Association of the Philippines to join in its seminars on business development, Committee Chair Apolinar Suarez, Jr. said.

He said the seminars will not only educate but further expand the knowledge of the small entrepreneurs, adding that the industry should already be brought to a next level.

CBM is also inviting Nora Terrado, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, to speak during the ICT & BPM Conference on June 2 - 3.

Committee Chair Jun Sa-a said the DTI official will talk about the ASEAN integration and its impact on the information and communications technology and business processing indusries.

“We believe she is familiar of the topic as she used to be an active member of the Philippine Software Industry Association and that she will foresee what would most likely happen in the integration,” Sa-a noted.

The conference will also have people from Amazon Web Services, he added.

He also stressed that one way to tap the integration’s estimated 600 million market is to use information and communications technologies in business startups.

Sa-a believed the Philippines has one of the “youngest, creative, most trainable and innovative and probably the most digitally connected people” and that if efforts are being done to help them, a big opportunity will soon come for the country.

Power supply

Ensuring a stable supply of power in the country is a big challenge especially among businesses as preparations are being done to meet the challenges poised by the 2015’s integration.

Espeleta said the cost of power is now challenging businesses and that these should remain competitive in the coming economic integration.

“We just don’t blame or reklamo na lang,” the consultant said. “What should the business do? That’s part of educating entrepreneurs to be competitive in as far as the Philippine industry is concerned.”

For his part, Joseph shared that the tourism industry is already aware of the energy problem, saying “At times, we can create a destination where there is no air conditioner. That’s part of marketing.”

A Philippine Star report stated that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has planned to have a “super Asian grid” to ensure a stable power supply in the future.