By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com
The number of college graduates of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) related courses increased this year as more students took up ICT certificate courses, according to a survey conducted by research firm Consumer Vibe Asia.
Joyce Luth Casiño, research director of Consumer Vibe Asia, said a total of 30,053 ICT students graduated this year from 145 schools offering ICT related courses that were included in the survey. The number is up from the 26,429 ICT graduates of the same schools in 2007 and more than double the total 14,451 ICT graduates in the same schools in year 2000.
Casi said the study interviewed 266 respondents including deans, academic heads and IT heads of schools offering ICT courses. Most of the respondents (76%) are holding teaching positions in Metro Manila, seven percent came from Balance Luzon, 10 percent from the Visayas and seven percent from Mindanao.
Casiño said that while majority of ICT graduates took up full ICT courses for school year 2007-2008, "there is also an increasing number of students who are taking up vocational and certificate courses that are ICT related."
She said that of the 30,053 ICT graduates in the respondent schools, 19,788 finished full four-year ICT courses; 9,550 finished vocational courses and 715 finished certificate courses. In 2007, the respondent schools had 18,687 full, 7,122 vocational and 620 ICT certificate graduates.
Casiño said the top courses offered in the respondent schools are Computer & Information System (40%), Programming & Application Development (40%) and Network Design & Administration (38%).
Casiño said a separate study among technology driven companies showed that the country is producing more full ICT graduates than the industry demands. She said the study showed that most IT jobs available locally can be easily filled by ICT vocational course graduates.
She said the study also showed that ICT schools "are doing a very good job in providing technical knowledge for its graduates but fail to help them develop business skills."
"This means that the quality of graduates is quite fine for entry level ICT posts as most of the graduates have high technical inclination but quite weak business sense," she said.
She said that to address this weakness, schools and the ICT industry should forge partnerships for a more relevant curriculum design and pave the way for appropriate placement of graduates in IT companies.
Source: abs-cbnnews.com