By the Computerworld Philippines Staff

Among many necessary enterprise resources, manpower is probably one of the key factors that drive business operations forward. Without people manning workstations, managing offices or meeting with clients, businesses end up with nothing to produce for their consumers and stakeholders. This key role in the operation of firms underscores the need for a competitive and able workforce.

However, the generally dismal state of education in the country today has not only produced graduates that are not wholly equipped with the industry’s needs, but has created a wide gap between the industry and the academe as well. At the advent of a predominant “skills mismatch” in the labor force, the industry is left with no other recourse but to make up for where the academe had its shortcomings. The academe, on the other hand, continues to grapple with limited resources amidst a fast-growing technology landscape, making it even harder to keep up with the times.

At Computerworld Philippines’ monthly CIO roundtable, two IT executives, three academe officials and two officers from the government’s CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology) gathered their opinions on the needed measures to facilitate the smooth transition of manpower from the academe to the industry.

Among the attendees were Henry Parcon, chief information & technology officer, Airlift Asia, Inc.; Glenn R. Ganuelas, chief technology officer, Paysetter International, Inc.; Dr. Wilson B. Velano. program head, College of Computer Studies at AMA Computer University; Cayetano A. Nicolas, Dean, College of Information Technology at Arellano University; Dr. Bartolome T. Tanguilig III, Dean, College of Information Technology Education at the Technological Institute of the Philippines; Melizza Tan, project manager for E-skwela, CICT; and Jennifer Odulio - project staff for iSchools, CICT.

Also present at the roundtable were Oscar Gomez, Computerworld Philippines contributor and Leo Querubin, Avante president, who served as moderators during the discussion; and Julius Suarez, sales engineer of security firm Sophos Plc, sponsor of the event.

At the end of the discussion, a firmer resolve has been proposed: strengthening the linkage between the academe and the industry in order to come up with a parallel objective that will serve the needs of the industry, the academe and even the students who will eventually become part of the nation’s workforce.

Excerpts of the discussion follow:

Computerworld: What is the state of IT education in the country today? Are the schools producing the kind of graduates the IT sector is looking for?

Velano: There are only a limited number of schools confirmed as centers of excellence: De La Salle University, University of Cordillera, UP Los Baños, Asia Pacific College, to name a few. Many of the IT schools here in the Philippines are still in the level of accreditation, meaning there are some variable or entities that are missing for them to be able to uplift their status. Today, the most desired status of the university is the center of excellence, so if these institutions obtain the COE mark, I think our graduates will basically be better.

Tanguilig: Despite the sustained or even increasing level of demand for IT education in the country, there is still a perceived gap between the instruction and the actual need of the industry. In the recent conducted studies, there are still various set skills that are strongly correlated to the specific requirements of the industries that remain to be unfulfilled resulting to a “skills mismatch”. A common company suggestion is to improve the quality of education, while the schools, on the other hand, are suggesting for more industry exposure for students.

Computerworld: How are you going to compare today’s graduates to graduates of five to 10 years ago in terms of their skills and readiness for employment?

Velano: If this trend will propagate, comparing the graduates of centers of excellence against those graduates from schools that are not, I’d say there is still a big gap. Graduates from these COE are the desired graduates, and those who have not yet achieved the COE status are not as competitive, at least that’s how I see it.

Tanguilig: Over time, more and more schools offering IT programs are realizing the need for their students’ exposure to industry-related training programs. We observed this in IT associations and organizations. Needless to say that IT graduates are keen on the technical component of their jobs, other competency skills like social, professional and behavioral skills should further be developed among them.

Nicolas: In remote places, like in the province of Mindoro, what we did with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is align the standards and concepts taught with other schools. We revised their curricula based on what is stipulated under CMO 53. The question is the comparability of these schools which have problems, given that they are not that equipped with the necessary technology to carry out the courses. So we can’t really ask how we can produce good graduates without also asking how we can produce good schools to mold these students.

Computerworld: We want to throw the follow-up right away to those in the industry. Can you confirm the situation in the work place?

Ganuelas: The perception that I’ve been getting, compared to five to 10 years ago, is that today there is an improvement with the skills. But one issue being raised by management today is the need to train fresh graduates with the proper communication skills. They may have the technical skills but as you know, they also have to deal with customers. Students graduate from an IT course know the basics, which are very important. So employers throw them into specific training, and the basics are already there. The gap is in communication skills, and from what I’ve seen there’s been an improvement in the last couple of years. Another thing is the need for technology, where the curriculum has to catch up, because there are schools out there that still teach, for example, Oracle 8, even if support from the vendor has already been discontinued.

Parcon: It’s very true that our education today remains at a dismal state, with other institutions trying to catch up with the more established ones. That’s why we are enforcing training for six months whenever we hire fresh graduates.

I think one of the best things that could be done by schools is to conduct semi-formal education seminars and trainings that will expose their students deeply to the profession. We accept OJT (on-the-job trainees) who are required 200 to 300 hours and on their first week of duty, we conduct a lot of education and training to reinforce their knowledge. We educated them in order for them to be prepared for their future jobs. I think schools can invite IT professionals to a forum and let them know what they are going to face once they are in the field so the students can evaluate if they are really into such a career.

Odulio: I agree with everyone else regarding the gap and improvement needed in education. I just want to raise two points: I want to share the experience of our iSchools project in CICT, since we are into public high schools. I think it’s also worthwhile to look into the basic education situation in our country. Of all the roundtable discussions I’ve attended, they always focus on college graduates, which I understand given that is where the immediate need comes from. But I think we should also look into the situation of our basic education because there is also a gap there.

Tan: For our part, we’ve had several forums before discussing this type of issue, and what we’ve found out is that the absorption rate is still very low in terms of getting in or taking in the applicants.

We’ve asked several school partners about the questions you’ve given, and they see that a lot of the teachers are not really that competent to deliver the curriculum. For one thing, their training is very much outdated, so they don’t have further knowledge. Two, they are really not exposed to actual field work, so what they know are theoretical concepts that are hard to impart to the students. Another problem is the difficulty of producing such collaborations in the rural areas given their limited budgets.

In terms of facilities, it’s really not enough. They can’t even buy the proper software and hardware, so they can’t really improve their curriculum because they don’t have the resources. The teachers know the standards but they do not know much about the curriculum, so they could only teach so far.

For the past few years, the industry says the universities’ graduates cannot meet the demands of the companies. The academe would retort, “But we’re only tasked to teach the basics.” The problem occurs because these two institutions won’t meet halfway, but recently there have been movement towards acceptance in the academe regarding the needs of the industry.

Nicolas: We also have linkages and affiliations with organizations such as PCS. In our program right now, we invite the industry to take part in the courses, so we saw a significant improvement with the graduates that we produce.

Computerworld: But are you listening to the suggestions of the industry?

Nicolas: Yes, because some of their suggestions are already part of our program. So just imagine, the subjects that we are teaching employ the industry approach. So you really have to overhaul your program. What is critical here is the competency of the students.

Ganuelas: I think it’s also the fault of the industry why there is such a gap. Skills and job requirements just don’t match anymore, and it’s the industry fault. Not to put the human resource practitioners down but maybe they also have to take a closer look at what skills are needed by the industry.

Computerworld: In a nutshell, what specific skills are you looking for when you hire IT personnel?

Julius Suarez (Sophos): I’m on a limited industry because we are basically doing network and end-point security, but from what I’ve seen so far from dealings with other IT companies, new graduates need immediate exposure to tools used in the industry. For example, the basic tool is a Windows OS, because most of the companies here are using it. But sometimes they don’t know other things about the OS, like security, for example.

I think it’s good that some universities have a board of advisers which they usually turn to when it comes to the topics to put in their courses or subjects.

Nicolas: That’s what we did in University of the East when I was a faculty member there. They hire an industry practitioner to teach major subjects, producing a very good impact because they are introducing the things that are currently happening in the industry.

The problem with that setup is that the concept of teaching from the industry is a little different from the concept of teaching in the academe. Industry practitioners teach what they gained from the industry but somehow the students can’t relate immediately, because these teachers are talking about something far beyond their comprehension. If you try to talk more on the theoretical level, they might just understand you. What I’m trying to do now is aiding the collaboration between industry and the academe to do something to help the students.

Computerworld: What are the skills you are looking for that probably comprise part of the gap we are talking about?

Ganuelas: I think it can be beneficial to bring the students to do on the job training than bringing industry practitioners to the academe. One way of addressing the gap is by bringing the industry practitioners to teach in the schools with the risk of being touted as speaking Greek, as opposed to bringing the students into the workplace. I think the latter is more effective in bringing a different level of awareness.

Computerworld: Under the CMO of CHED, is 420 the pre-requisite for OJT students?

Nicolas: Yes, that’s a very strict pre-requisite, because before, students can take their internship early on, which shouldn’t really be the case.

Ganuelas: For me I think it should be extended to more than a semester. I actually absorbed one trainee from UST who spent two summers with us.

Tan: In terms of OJT, schools often don’t send requirement skills that their students should learn, only number of hours that need to be completed. What happens is companies, since students can’t deliver in terms of skills, often relegate trainees to do clerical jobs.

Velano: Students should be able to acquire the best skills, and not just go back to the school and tell superiors that they were simply asked to file documents in the office.

Nicolas: I think there should be a memorandum of agreement between the industry and the academe.

Tan: There should be clear guidelines whenever schools send out trainees because the measure of competence isn’t clear.

Computerworld: If we do that, will we not face earlier the low absorption rate? Because if the industry says we would only hire those who can contribute to the team, won’t the absorption rate fall down again?

Ganuelas: We’re not saying that the students can help immediately. We accept them based on the deliverables from their school and we also grade them on that particular function criterion. So maybe the absorption may not be there but companies can grade them eventually. So what happens is usually they are assigned a task where the team leader evaluates their output. We expose them to these kinds of environment which they will be dealing with in the future anyway.

Computerworld: Can the industry work closely with the placement offices and schools?

Ganuelas: I know Accenture already has a person in Ateneo. My daughter right now is in 3rd year in Ateneo MIS and this early she is being offered a scholarship so that she will eventually work with them immediately after graduation. It’s what Microsoft is also doing. They get the best and the brightest from all the top US universities and have the students sign a contract which goes like: “we’ll pay for your education but you’re going to work for me.”

Suarez: Here, Microsoft sponsored the laboratory and even though you’re still in school you can already study the MSCE. So, once you graduate you have the option to go with Microsoft, and not only with Microsoft but there are also other IT companies.

Ganuelas: PLDT, HP, Google and even Friendster today are coming into the picture. But there are scenarios like that in Ateneo and UP.

Computerworld: What should be the basic skills that these graduates or these near graduates should already have?

Ganuelas: In the real world, there are already problems in the high school level. But in the ideal world, our college students should already be globally competitive. And in the national scale we must have competitive exams to identify the talented students in IT, and other exams also that would reveal their logical capacity as developers and programmers.

Dr. Tanguilig: As in any graduate who wants to be hired for a job, an IT candidate needs to be armed with technical skills required for the job he is applying. However, he must also be open to multi-skills requirement while maintaining a certain competitive advantage on a specific area. In general, he must possess the needed interpersonal skills as an IT may not at all be confined to a world where he and his computer are the only entities in his work area. He must have the professional skills to engage himself in undertakings related to research, innovation and collaboration.

Odulio: Since I worked as a guidance counselor before, I think what’s lacking in our basic education is the guidance to lead students to what they want to become in accordance to their passion and potential. In the past, when there was a big demand for accountants, everyone was taking accounting. Then the time came when nursing was in demand and everyone took up nursing. Passion is really important in becoming what you really want to do in the future.

Computerworld: Fundamentally, we are the only country whose bridge of education is less than 12 years. What’s your comment about that?

Tan: Actually it has been discussed in one global forum before that the Philippines has the least number of years when it comes to education. It was also learned that in terms of maturity level, we tend to hurry up our students to go to college. What many are saying is that we should add one or two more years either in the elementary or high school education to be at par with the international education. It’s not only about knowledge but more on maturity, the confidence level, the exposure to certain things like in the real world.

Computerworld: What was different in the past education system?

Odulio: Today’s number of students in one class room is one basic problem. I’ve been to public schools before, those in the remote areas, and they have problems like this. But even here in Quezon City, there are students having classes in the lobby area of the school. Imagine if you are 70 students in one class, you will no longer understand your teacher if you’re seated at the back.

Ganuelas: Compared to what you are saying, our batch or people from our generation, the quality has really degraded not only because of that problem but also because of the quality of education. The root of the problem really is both population and corruption.

Tan: The use of PCs is not the only problem that we see in our public education system but the teaching methodologies as well. It is still common that upon reaching first year college, the student isn’t ready to study in college because they got used to either memory work or plain copying of notes that they didn’t really understand. I think the current problems of DepEd is still the same with their problems in the early 1900s—lack of teachers, classrooms and resources.

Computerworld: What are the opportunities and the threats to the pursuit of a successful IT career among today’s IT graduates? What’s the silver lining on that very dark cloud?

Velano: For me it’s the rapid technology advancement. With less time to re-tool our graduates, to meet the industry demand, since this technology demands high pricing for its proprietorship investment and little support from the owner or government. Proprietorship of software also carries a serious amount of technology like Cisco, SAP, Oracle, and Sigma 6. I know one school that had a free share of open source software but they didn’t offer it as a course.

Ganuelas: Obviously, the financial crisis is limiting the hiring, although Accenture hasn’t stop hiring but they are letting go of some of the bench people that they have. But I believe the crisis is almost over, and I think it has bottomed out so recovery is beginning. The outlook of the banks is that by the middle of the 4th quarter, the recovery should pick up and I’m sure hiring will continue.

It brings new opportunities for the new graduates simply because with the new world emerging, it will be more technology-dependent to bring down cost, so the quality of the graduates also have to be better than what they are at present. But I believe there’s still time to grow if we can implement the programs that we are discussing here. But it will take time, I believe.

Parcon: I think the biggest threat that our graduates are facing right now is they are not confident of the education they have. If you will look at it, it brings us back to the teachers. It only means the teachers lack talent as well. And the teachers need proper management from their leaders. In support to that, we who understand all these things need to penetrate our advocacy level to the small group, beginning with the family. I am not into the increase of number of school years in high school or in college, but I believe there should be more OJTs for the students’ exposure.

Nicolas: What I perceive as a threat is the entrance of our IT graduates to the competitive world, which, as I see it, is half-cooked. Because of this, confidence and competency is lacking. But there are, of course, a lot of opportunities in the IT field. The problem is the graduates cannot penetrate those because they lack competency and confidence.

Tan: In terms of opportunity, the market for the IT sector is growing not only internationally but locally as well. Even municipalities now see the benefits of IT. Now there’s a move by UNESCO and the Asia-Pacific Region to standardize curriculums to encourage mobility among students, teachers and even employees. This is both an opportunity and a threat. It is probably an opportunity because it is now possible that we can elevate our education standards on IT and be competitive, but a threat also in terms of mobility. What I mean is people from other countries now also have an opportunity in the Philippines. They can always compete with local IT graduates here especially in the Asia-Pacific scene.

Tanguilig: Today’s IT graduates need not be anxious on the availability of the number of jobs that they can choose. The big question is on “how prepared are they to take the challenge?” If they think that they have the qualifications for the job then they should be bold to take the plunge. They must consistently take the opportunities to learn and retrain themselves alongside with how technology swiftly takes its pace so they won’t be left behind.

Odulio: I think the Philippines will still remain to be number two with regards to human resources, but the question is the competency to be hired.

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