Upskilling crucial as talent crunch hits IT-BPM targets

As the Philippines' Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector races toward its ambitious growth targets—with 1.5 million workers and over US$31 billion in annual revenue—industry leaders warn of an urgent need to upskill talent or risk losing the country’s competitive edge in the global digital economy.

At the Cebu Business Month (CBM) 2025 Tech and Innovation Forum, Jonathan De Luzuriaga, president of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), issued a clear signal: while the topline numbers remain impressive, the country is at a critical juncture.

“There’s a lot of impressive data,” he said. “But if you look closer, especially at software development—my turf—the cracks start to show.”

Nowhere is this challenge more visible than in Cebu, which has become a vital node in the country’s IT-BPM ecosystem.

Once primarily known for voice-based outsourcing, Cebu has quietly built the infrastructure, academic partnerships, and digital infrastructure needed to serve higher-value segments, including software engineering, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.

Yet, even Cebu’s upward trajectory cannot mask the structural challenge: the local talent pool is not keeping pace with the evolving demands of global clients, Luzuriaga said.

While the software development segment alone contributes roughly U$5.8 billion in annual export revenue and employs more than 180,000 Filipinos, De Luzuriaga noted a shortage in critical skills—from API integration and AI modeling to cloud certification and data science.

“The nature of demand has shifted,” he said, adding that clients no longer want 100 generalist developers for a long-term project. “They want five specialists with deep fluency in AI and agile systems.”