WITH employers around the world emphasizing the importance – and difficulty – of finding skilled workers, some leading firms are resorting to training employees and would-be workers for them to adapt to changes and latest trends in information technology.
This move is necessary especially since the country is in hurry to get back on its feet after our economy was battered heavily by the pandemic.
In the Philippines, the BPO sector, for example, doesn’t suffer from a workforce shortage, but many graduates are not skilled enough for the jobs they were applying for.
According to Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the sector, which is a key economic driver of the country, grew by around 1.8 percent in terms of manpower and 1.4 percent in terms of revenue last year, despite the pandemic.
As new technology enables the sector to move up the value chain, the shift to higher-level skills will continue.
By 2022, as reported by Frost & Sullivan, 73 percent of jobs in the IT-BPM industry will require mid- to high-level skills.
It is good therefore that one of the world’s more renowned firms, IBM has unveiled a plan to provide 30 million people of all ages around the world by 2030with new skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow.
To achieve this goal, IBM is announcing a clear roadmap with more than 170 new academic and industry partnerships.
The effort will leverage IBM’s existing programs and career building platforms to expand access to education and in-demand technical roles.
“The pandemic has spurred the speed of technology adoption, giving rise to the demand for new skills, jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and AI economy,” said Aileen Judan-Jiao, president and country general manager of IBM Philippines.
IBM sees the need to collaborate with government and academic institutions to equip the future human-led and technology-enabled workforce of our country with both disruptive technical skills, specialized industry skills and core business skills, to remain competitive," she also said.
“Today’s collaboration with The Department of Education National Capital Region Public Schools in bridging digital talent gap will help Filipino students improve the skills and employability, facilitating their access to and transitions in the marketplace as our country continues to be a rich human capital of the world,” added Aileen.
It’s good that IBM and some other international corporations like them are embarking on the initiative of upskilling the current labor force and even would be workers.
After all, it’s only through projects like it that they could be assured of continued supply of well-trained and capable manpower for the longest time.