THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is urging the youth to become digital entrepreneurs in a digital economy.
“At the end of their studies, we want our youth to know that they can set up a business. We want to reprogram the minds of the youth that they can do other things than seeking employment,” DICT Undersecretary for Regional Operations and Countryside and ICT Industry Development Monchito Ibrahim told the BusinessMirror in an interview at the sidelines of the recent launch of fifth iteration of the Philippine Startup Challenge (PSC5) to attract more schools around the country.
He said the objective is to develop the start-up ecosystem in the Philippines. The Philippine start-up competition has been a big help in boosting the development of startups in the country. In fact, school coaches must first finish their training at the yearly boot cam ps organized by the DICT.
Ibrahim said this competition also aims to develop entrepreneurship to the students so they can help promote economic inclusivity in the country in the long term. In fact, this is one initiative to promote entrepreneurship among the youth and students of the country. The competition will see at least 24 teams across the final round of the competition.
“We are more excited for this new edition of the Philippine Startup Challenge [PSC] because it will be more inclusive by giving each of the DICT’s eight clusters the opportunity to field three teams from colleges and universities in their respective areas to the competition and compete in the finals,” Ibrahim said.
In preparation for the competition, the DICT will be hosting a series of bootcamps nationwide to empower college students and professors to become mentors of the student teams.
Ibrahim said the participants in the bootcamp will learn the technical and business aspects of building a start-up. He said the mentors’ bootcamp will be held in their cluster to enable their start-up team to be eligible to join the contest.
“We want them to experience the journey of a start-up. Other will treat it as a school requirement while others will treat the matter in a more serious manner” he said.
He said 24 teams will then be selected for the semifinal phase and will attend one-on-one coaching workshops. Moreover, the top 10 teams will go on to compete at the finals to be held in Metro Manila.
The competition is supported by the Philippine Software Industry Association, Huawei Technologies, Ideaspace Foundation, Philippine Society of IT Educators and QBO. PSC is a program by the DICT’s seedPH Digital Startup Development Program that seeks to develop the country’s start-up ecosystem and promote the benefits of digital entrepreneurship.