IT Graduates for Call Center Agents?

The purpose of this research topic is to investigate the skill shortages in the IT profession and would hopefully draw out the primary reasons or factors that brought about this dilemma especially here in our country. To think that there is a large percentage of undergraduates of the IT or Computer Science field but only about 10 percent have been formally awarded of such degree (James H. Morris and Peter Lee), that is such an alarming situation. According to the Philippine Research Education and Government Information Network (PREGINET), an ICT research project of the government, ‘when it comes to IT Technical manpower for the industry, there are not enough qualified entrants. And new graduates are said to be of less skills’. Philippines have a great demand for ICT human resource, but how can we meet these needs if we only have those less skilled graduates that are unlikely for hiring. Our country is not alone in this crisis with regards to the emerging shortage of IT professional. The escalating demand for such profession has been insufficiently met by the supply in employment (Department of Labor, New Zealand, 2005). I think that this is a really critical issue that needs to have actions done as soon as possible.

I myself is not yet sure where to go after I graduate wherein I could apply the things I’ve learned in my course, maybe for one of the reasons that I am not that skilled enough to accept a job as a System Analyst for example. The title enough gives me the nosebleed. This kind of attitude tends to answer why most of the IT graduates sought other jobs than become an IT professional. And I think I share this problem with the other students and even post graduates of the same field. With this research topic, these are some of the things that I would hopefully find answers for:

• Why there is staggering number of IT or CS students but only small percentage really makes it to the real world as an equipped professional?

• Does the IT curriculum/education in our country have a vital contribution to this? Or level of training needs?

• What are the other factors that could have a more contribution that results to the failure of satisfying the demand with the supply of IT professionals?

• Employment rate of IT professionals has grown rapidly for the past years but why it has dropped so?

• What are the most misconceptions about IT professions and how do they contribute to the problem in hand?

With the factors elicited in the future, it would hopefully be a way to find the appropriate solutions why there is an IT professional shortage in our country and also elevate and enhance the level of the ICT facilities and knowledge we have compared to other countries.