Stakeholder relations company Rabah Consulting Corporation, in partnership with an India-based firm Pratian Technologies, launched in the Philippines the SkillAssure, a rapid competency development program designed specifically to meet the skill set requirement of most in-demand tech jobs.
Offering rapid and high-level information technology (IT) certificate courses to Filipinos, SkillAssure is a complete end-to-end digital ecosystem for future skills, innovation, and entrepreneurship with 100% job placement in the IT industry. With about 150 IT courses to choose from, the program aims to combat the employment challenges brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in the Philippines.
Pratian Technologies chairman and CEO Subramanian Sivakumar noted that SkillAssure intends to provide opportunities to Filipino people by connecting them to their potential and sharing their experience to them. “SkillAssure seeks to enable at least 10,000 tech enthusiasts over the next decade, create a high-end IT workforce and accelerate tech entrepreneurs in the Philippines, and wishes to impart world-class skills in Industry 4.0 and beyond. Young Filipinos including the rural youth will have access to global mentors like the co-founder of MIT Innovation Lab.”
Sivakumar also said the program will continue even after the Covid-19 pandemic to fulfill its goal of improving skills of 10,000 Filipino people in IT through SkillAssure trainings.
The main SkillAssure program, according to Gary Libby, chief technology officer at Rabah Consulting, runs for three to five months, followed by apprenticeship in Asia or in Manila, venturing with top IT professionals from Silicon Valley, and job placements in any of their partner-companies. He said that employment is guaranteed for the first 300 graduates, which means they get to help 300 Filipino upskills and find lucrative jobs for them.
SkillAssure also assures future Filipino entrepreneurs that after they graduated from a SkillAssure Philippines course, they can be supported by its incubator program if they want to launch their own startups, Libby added.
For his part, Dave Richards, co-founder of MIT Innovation Lab, relayed that SkillAssure enables people in seven dimensions of competencies which include technology, behavioral competency, professional skills, management competency, entrepreneurial competency, innovation competency, and combinations of all of these for people to succeed.
“It’s all about elevating talent, entrepreneurship, and innovation to bring more positive value into the world,” said Richards.
Meanwhile, Libby announced the company will offer the SkillAssure Discoveri Program, a five-day free experiential learning session on different aspects of IT that are most valuable today. It focuses on training and assessment on Industry 4.0 technologies and frameworks industry, which refers to a new phase in the Industrial Revolution that delves on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning and real-time data.
Those who qualified for the Discoveri Program are encouraged to enroll to their respective course or field of interest. Students will undergo evaluations, tech panel interviews and assessment on various technologies they have learnt. Once they are selected, they will be offered placements and receive an opportunity to participate in global innovation and entrepreneurship journey.
On the other hand, students who are not selected can opt for SkillAssure’s professional programs designed to make students more employable. The success of this program in the past is 98% in terms of students successfully finding employment within six months of their training.
The Discoveri Program is done through an instructor-led session via live webinar, live interaction with industry professionals, collaboration sessions, the experience of the Software Development Life Cycle, and about 20 different technologies and eight different tools. Offered with no cost involved, the target participants for the program include senior high school graduates, technical-vocational completers, graduating college students, new hires, and professionals in the Philippines. Once they passed the assessment and evaluation, they can be included in the cohorts program.
Filipinos can also avail of blockchain, machine learning, big data, and artificial intelligence skills through SkillAssure. The IT certificate course training will be tentatively launched in the Philippines in October this year.
Globally, SkillAssure has received the interests of 30,000 students and trained over 12,000 freshers on Industry 4.0 experiential technologies and frameworks in the last seven months. I has offered jobs to more than 300 students in India alone through the online Discoveri in the last three months.
