IBPAP: Health crisis fueled IT-BPM spread

Aside from the massive adoption of digitalization that is considered a blessing in disguise from the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines said the contagion has made the industry expand to various regions.

IBPAP president Jack Madrid during his interview with the Daily Tribune digital show Straight Talk said before the world health emergency hit the country in March 2020, 75 percent of the IT-BPM industry's workforce was concentrated in Metro Manila, while the balance of 25 percent were in the greater Manila area.

"During the pandemic, that number moved upwards towards the countryside. Because a lot of our employees went back home to their provinces and cities. So, as of today, we estimate between 31 to 32 percent of our employees were outside Metro Manila which is a positive development because it reduced the concentration of the workforce in the capital," Madrid said.

"It also allowed our investors to tap the talent pools from the countryside, so we are very encouraged by this development and it's a trend that we expect to continue in the next five or six years," he added.
Madrid said they expect 54 percent of the industry's growth in the coming years in the countryside.

He said emerging cities in the provinces that have IT-BPM companies are Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro Cities, and even Laoag, apart from the successful cities of Cebu and Clark in Pampanga.

Changing mindsets
"We find unique talent pools wherever you go in the Philippines. Filipinos across from North to South have very good communication skills, although, we should continue to strengthen them."

"Aside from communication, we need to work on our comprehension, our critical thinking skills, and hopefully strengthen our university and high school curriculum so that we become stronger in science, Math, Engineering, and more technical fields because this is the big difference between the Philippines and India," Madrid explained.

India does it differently
He said Indian parents encourage their kids to take up Science and Math and Engineering, while Filipino parents do not do that in the same way.

"I would hope that this will change. Because of the nature of our work, the demands of our investors are more towards IT, digital, and more basic software development work. So top subjects like Computer Science and Programming are becoming very important," he underlined.

Despite this, Madrid said it's not too late because the country has a demographic advantage and a young population.

"Our population is young. our average age is between 25 to 26. We are the youngest country in Asia and I think we have a window of opportunity to increase the number of jobs for Filipinos. Because we have such a young population, what we need to do now is take the responsibility of upskilling and reskilling ourselves more seriously. We should not rely only on the schools to educate us. We need to take it as a personal responsibility," according to Madrid.

Since last year, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. have both said that they are backing proposals to look at the country's education curriculum in order to equip students with skills required by different industries and address the existing job mismatch.

Among the efforts being pushed by the government include a reform of the current curriculum since the rise of automation has posed a threat to many jobs.

Marcos said basic education skills and knowledge must be improved to prepare students as they pursue a higher level of learning.

In the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the Philippines came out last in both Mathematics and Science out of 58 countries. Singapore topped the said study.

While in the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics 2019, only 17 percent of Filipino Grade 5 learners met the minimum standards in Mathematics.