DICT trains young profs on rural impact sourcing

• Source: http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1421502771494/dict-trains-young-profs-on-rural-impact-sourcing
• Wednesday, August 16, 2017

By Rene V. Carbayas (ALT/RVC/PIA9-Basilan with reports from Angel Chua of DICT)

ISABELA CITY, Basilan (PIA) – Selected socio-economically disadvantaged young professionals in Lamitan City availed free ICT training from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) recently.

DICT information officer Angel A. Chua disclosed that some 25 young professionals from Lamitan City have been identified as scholars to the 5-week Rural Impact Sourcing (RIS) Technical Training conducted by the department in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the City Government of Lamitan.

During the launching ceremony on August 8, DICT Director Maria Teresa M. Camba said that the heart of the training is to help the unemployed and underemployed in the countryside to find ICT-related jobs.

“We are pushing this [training] because we want to create jobs in the countryside where the population is high, the talent is ripe, yet the employment is low due to lack of investors. At the end of the training, we hope that the scholars will be able to land an online job and will not have to leave Lamitan City anymore,” she said.

Camba added that to improve the skills of the scholars, they will be assigned to work with local MSMEs (micro-small and medium enterprises) in the city and help the latter to create and boost their online presence.

Chua also noted that upon sharing this opportunity to MSMEs, a member from the Yakan Weavers Association, expressed her excitement as the outputs of the training will expand their market and increase their income thru the website that will be created featuring their products.

Meanwhile, Lamitan City Mayor Rosita U. Furigay personally graced the event and expressed her heartfelt thanks to the DICT for the partnership in the project.

“Since our partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, a lot of great things happened to Lamitan City such as the establishment of Tech4ED Center and RIS Hub, the training workshops for our Yakan Weavers, and now the RIS Technical Training,” Mayor Furigay said.

To be able to help address unemployment and support more Filipinos in the countryside gain employment through the online freelancing industry, the DICT has developed a module that will provide technical training on ICT-related jobs. The training primarily aims to increase people’s hireability by focusing on development and improvement on their ICT skills and utilize it for employment opportunities.

Further, this training recognizes the role of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) to provide employment opportunities and contribute to economic growth especially within their locality. By increasing competency of the talent, this training will also serve as an avenue to promote the use of e-Commerce by MSMEs.

In the conduct of these trainings, special Technology empowerment for economic development (Tech4Ed) Centers will be established and utilized to serve as training centers in selected communities. The Tech4ED Center is a shared facility which provides access to ICT-enabled contents and services. These centers will also serve as RIS hubs where beneficiaries, after the training, can do jobs online with its free facilities.

DICT identified 27 training sites across the country; four in the list are under Mindanao Cluster 1’s area of responsibilities to include Zamboanga City, Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur, Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, and Lamitan, Basilan. Lamitan is the only city in ARMM to be part of the training series.