The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the University of the Philippines (UP) entered into an agreement on Monday, June 28, for the establishment and implementation of the Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) Development Program.
The program offers a scholarship to qualified government employees to pursue a degree in Master in Technology Management (MTM) offered by UP Technology Management Center.
The GCIO Development Program is a flagship initiative of the ICT Academy and aims to provide relevant ICT education and training to qualified government employee scholars for the purpose of establishing Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in priority sectors in national government agencies (NGAs), Constitutional Commissions/Offices (C/Os), Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations (GOCCs), State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), and Local Government Units (LGUs) as part of the ICT human capital build up.
The agreement between DICT and UP also provides for cooperation on the conduct of trainings and conferences for the capacity-building of GCIOs.
The GCIO Development Program is not the first partnership between DICT and UP. One of the projects the two have collaborated on was the conduct of a series of webinar titled “Enabling Teachers on Remote Teaching and Learning in the Time of Pandemic,” which was named one of the 90 Champions for World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2021 under the Capacity Building category.
Meanwhile, a nationwide skilling initiative for government employees and the Filipino workforce is set to be implemented with the launch of the free learning portal developed by the DICT in partnership with software titan Microsoft.
The DICT Workplace Learning and Development Platform contains asynchronous, instructor-led and blended online courses focused on content guides for specific digital roles. It offers 1,000 modules, 300 learning paths, and 21 specific roles free of charge.
The modules found on the site are comprehensive, with some lasting for 4-6 hours while others take less than 3 hours. The modules are produced by the DICT’s partners: Microsoft, LinkedIn Learning, and GitHub.
The platform and its modules can now be accessed but it still has features which are still in production, including an accreditation feature that will provide certificate and professional licenses as well as a career center to support job seekers, career changers, and professional advancement.
