The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. Largely comprising the ICT and ICT-enabled businesses, the outsourcing and offshoring (O&O) industry alone piped in US$4.8 billion to the Philippine economy based on the Business Processing Association Philippines data. This is both owing to the country’s modern telecom infrastructure as well as the abundance of world-class Filipino talent.

Indeed, one major factor in the growth of the sector is what industry insiders call “peopleware” – or the human component of the industry. More than hardware and software, peopleware completes the equation, which spells the success of ICT and ICT-enabled enterprises in the country.

The Philippines has continuously attracted global investors in the industry attributed to a large extent to the competency of Filipino ICT professionals. According to Jayjay Viray, general manager of JobsDB.com, an online Human Resources firm, “We have the skills needed by the ICT sector plus the good-natured attitude towards work.” She explained that Filipinos know how to multi-task and do other jobs related to their work.

The country continues to produce the brainpower needed by the sector. About 10 percent of the 350, 000 college graduates in the Philippines per annum have degrees that are related to the ICT sector, according to the Philippine Strategic Roadmap for the ICT Sector.

However, a study made by the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) revealed that there is a “lack of well-trained and competent trainers and educators in ICT and ICT-related subjects has contributed to the declining quality of education and of the country’s ICT and knowledge workers.”

Viray shared the same sentiment. “We have an oversupply of IT graduates, but we have an undersupply of quality IT graduates,” she said. “You’re not an IT if you only know how to encode,” she adds. While Viray laments that some IT graduates have no in-depth knowledge of basic principles of programming, for example, she is happy that some IT companies have partnered with IT schools to provide training and education.

One sector of the ICT industry that Viray hopes to see more Filipinos going into is software development. While there are many local (software) developers, their exposure to developing software is only bits and pieces of programs. “They’re in a box,” Viray says. “How I wish we could develop something of bigger impact like Linux or Red Hat,” she added.

Peopleware will be one of the topics that will be discussed in the forthcoming 12th ICT Professionals’ Congress, which is being organized by the Philippine Computer Society (PCS) and sponsored by JobsDB.com, Microsoft, Globe, Oracle, IBM and e-PLDT. The PCS, founded in 1967, is the premiere organization of 700 ICT practitioners in the country. It strives to continuously promote, protect and enhance the members of the ICT profession through its local and international activities.

Viray shares, “I’m an avid supporter of the ICT Congress and its efforts and goals. I like the objectives of this congress. This year, it will cover the sectors that I believe are very important – education, business, and economy. And one does not even have to be an ICT professional to be a part of it. Everyone stands to learn something from the good lineup of topics in the two-day conference.”

For more information on peopleware and other topics, register now for the Philippine Computer Society’s 12th ICT Professionals’ Congress on May 14 and 15, 2008, to be held at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Makati City.

For more details, please visit www.pcs-it.org or call 840-0985 to 86 or e-mail secretariat@pcs-it.org.