DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 Aug) – The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Davao, Inc. is still looking for more than 1,000 scholars to be trained as call center agents, animators, transcriptionists and software developers.
Lizabel Holganza, president of ICT Davao, said Wednesday they still have to fill about 40 percent of the 2,400 scholarship slots with a total worth of P23 million that will only be available until November 30.
This is under the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
She said the scholarship slots range from P5,000 for call center agents; P10,000 for animators and transcriptionists; and P30,000 for software developers. But 80 percent of the slots are for voiced service providers or call center agents.
The scholars will undergo trainings with partner institutions here that are TESDA-accredited, among them Jobs Academy, MTC Academy and Philippine College of Technology.
Belinda L. Torres, president of Jobs Academy, said this program, which started in November last year, is about to end to make way for another wave of voucher for emerging technologies, specifically game development, social media and cloud computing.
The number of target scholars for the upcoming scholarship in November is yet to be determined by the TESDA and Business Processing Association of the Philippines.
“Our advocacy along with TESDA is to provide employment for the scholars so we need our students to be competitive. With TWSP, we aim to employ 70 percent of them within six months after graduation,” she said.
In fact, she added, the Jobs Academy signed a memorandum of agreement with Davao Software, Inc., which is an organization of 22 member companies, to ensure the employment of graduates.
Holganza noted that the scholarship program is in line with the ICT sector’s goal to generate 14,000 to 16,000 jobs in the industry by the end of 2012.
She added that they still need some 2,000 employees to reach the target this year on top of the existing 12,000.
To invite more interested workers in the ICT industry, the ICT Davao will host a jobs caravan during a three-day innovation exposition here on November 9-11, she said.
She clarified that this will not be a jobs fair but an opportunity for potential members, especially the young ones, to have an interactive and hands-on experience on the kinds of jobs they may consider applying for.
To be attended by industry players – including animators, visual graphic designers, and software developers – the expo will showcase capabilities of the ICT products and services.
She mentioned that members of the academe will also be present in this event to know from participating companies what skills to develop that would match their demands. (Lorie Ann A. Cascaro / MindaNews)