Top experts from IT giant, International Business Machines (IBM), and a management team from COMTEQ Computer and Business College recently went through a transformative four-week program that brought the teaching of IT at Comteq to the highest level.
The IBM experts visited the country to foster the growth of the information technology community in the Philippines as part of the company’s global corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. They are all brilliantly engaged in a spectrum of disciplines in the markets where IBM is competing in globally.
“We initially thought we were justified in thinking that our competitive edge as an IT institution was already razor-sharp due to the college’s stellar track record in winning IT competitions,” Comteq Deputy Administrator Ansbert Joaquin said.
“But the IBM volunteers have awakened us to the fact that there are knowledge-areas in the field of IT that we have yet to explore and conquer, which our college is uniquely positioned to accomplish to better serve our students,” Joaquin admitted.
Comteq has consistently been winning local and national skills competitions because of the quality of its students some of whom find themselves employed by prestigious companies even before they graduate.
The school was chosen by the Subic Bay Chamber of Commerce as the learning institution operating in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo city, and the province of Zambales that possesses the highest yield-potential to benefit from the CSR program and help spread IBM’s expertise in the community.
Project output
Douglas Del Prete, Global Industry Solutions senior consultant for IBM from Massachusetts in the United States, provided Comteq with a road map to enhance its curriculum so that the knowledge-base and the skill-sets being imparted by the faculty to its students are at par with the most prized worker assets in the global IT sector.
Del Prete said that the “hot skills” program that is now embedded in Comteq College’s curriculum will “enable students enrolled here to compete with other students anywhere in the world.“
“We made sure that Comteq’s curriculums are more aligned in the regional, national, and global trends in IT. This way, the expertise that students will obtain here on their way to getting jobs after they graduate, comprises the most valued skills in the industry. This should translate to satisfactory and lucrative careers for them later,” he said.
In a symposium about the latest trends in IT attended by hundreds of high school and college IT students, Del Prete said “schools in the area will become catalysts in transforming the Subic Bay Freeport Zone into “a mighty economic engine“ by arming its students with the hot skills that are prized in the industry.
“I see a lot of potential here. But it is going to need knowledgeable people to realize that potential and turn it into something valuable. And that’s why itis important that the learning institutions in this area are always engaged in enhancing the skills of its students that are important to industry, he said.
“Comteq is now several steps ahead of the competition in this regard,” Del Prete stressed.
Another expert, YiRen “Judy” Yuan, IBM User Experience Engineer, from Shanghai, China, meanwhile, helped craft Comteq’s strategic plans for the next five years.
She was joined by Jens Teichelmann, Director of asset recovery service for IBM, from Stuttgart, Germany who shared his expertise in sales, marketing and finance. Together, they also worked with the Comteq staff in developing the college’s marketing program.
Yuan said that that the IBM group which consisted of “IBM’s best performing and high-potential employees” hoped to have succeeded in leaving a lasting legacy to the community through Comteq.
“As much as we have shared our knowledge and our expertise to Comteq, we hope that what we have done here benefits as many persons as possible and improves their lot in life through education,” she said.
Teichelmann agreed and said he is confident that the entire community will benefit from the program as well. “The local community will also be able to build its capacity for IT through IBM’s expertise,” he explained.
“In fact, they are the foremost beneficiary of the program since most of the students who enroll in Comteq are part of the communities that surround the Freeport Zone,” he added.
Another IBM volunteer from Columbia, Camilo Roxas, who was actually assigned at the tourism office of Olongapo City, also shared his skills to selected Comteq students in web development.
Cutting edge
The IBMers that formed the team in Subic came from India, China, Germany, Canada, U.S, Columbia and Costa Rica. They were chosen from a pool of over 400, 000 workers scattered throughout the globe. Some of them were assigned to develop the strategic plan for the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
“Together, our friends from IBM have brought Comteq to the cutting edge of the IT industry in terms of our curriculum and strategic management initiatives,” Joaquin said at the end of the four-week program.
“The volunteers really left us with a lot of work to do as they have set us in the direction that will shape the course of this college’s future,” Joaquin said.
“And it will be mainly due to their (IBM experts’) inspiration and their guidance that our students shall reap the benefits of IBM’s culture — that of sharing and excellence in the field of IT,” he added.