The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said it has laid out initiatives to support the agenda of the national government in upskilling the country’s existing workforce.
IBPAP President Jack Madrid said on Wednesday that the flagship organization of the IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry “will continue to support” the agenda of the national government in improving the collaboration between the public and private sectors for the continuous upskilling of Filipino workers.
The head of IBPAP said, “We will continue to support this agenda of the national government by: upskilling entry-level talent and the existing workforce through a national talent upskilling program; increasing the capacity for specialized degree courses; establishing early-stage interventions to boost proficiency and employability; and creating an IT-BPM services online talent hub.”
Madrid said one of the several initiatives underway to get these accomplished is IBPAP’s recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) “to embed training programs designed by the IT-BPM sector into the curriculum of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for more readily employable graduates with industry-relevant skills.”
Last month, the IBPAP chief said “we are working hard with our partners in government—[Department of Education] DepEd, Commission on Higher Education [CHED]. [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority] TESDA, to upskill our existing workforce.”
Madrid said another initiative is the newly launched IT-BPM Talent Hub, which he said is “a career portal where organizations can post their information, post about job openings, conduct screening processes, and engage with potential talent.”
The IBPAP chief also noted that the organization is currently working with the local government unit (LGU) of Quezon City to implement a “revised work immersion program” for select schools within the Academic Year 2022-2023 in collaboration with Concentrix.
Madrid said IBPAP intends “to replicate this nationwide once tested and perfected.”
He said another major initiative that IBPAP has in the pipeline is an IT-BPM Talent Summit that IBPAP will be holding in April 2023 together with BOI.
“The event will serve as a venue to strengthen the IT- BPM talent ecosystem and to rally stakeholders in the government and the academe to speak about and work together to address pressing issues on talent attraction and development,” Madrid said on Wednesday.
Madrid said that while these activities are ongoing, IBPAP will work “towards developing a strategic and operational framework for a national upskilling program that can be rolled out across the country.”
“We want to remain ahead of the changing business and talent landscape by ensuring they are equipped in the top skill areas for IT-BPM: next-generation IT and digital skills, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for business process functions, traditional IT skills, industry-specific SMEs, soft skills, and language skills that go beyond English,” he added.
The head of IBPAP said this will require a “multi-year and multi-stakeholder cooperation.” With this, he said the IBPAP is hoping to receive more support from the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in making this successful. Andrea E. San Juan
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