The coming of next generation technologies such as VOiP, Push-To-Talk, 3G in the telco business has brought forth a need for IT professionals and engineers knowledgeable in internet protocols. SMART, as a pioneer of these new communications technologies, thus has decided to upgrade existing academe tie-ups to include not only trainings and transfer of technology from an engineering standpoint but also now in the area of IT.

Realizing that IT education in the country still has much room for improvement, Smart, as a leading company in the country that applies IT technologies, wants to make a contribution to the development of IT learning. SMART hopes to contribute to the employability of students, especially those coming from schools lacking in IT facilities, by helping bridge the industry-academe gap. Given the fast pace of change in IT, there is a need to marry what the schools teach and what the industry needs.

Since the company already has established relationships with over 40 partner schools for the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program, a project where the company installed wireless laboratories consisting of engineering equipment, there was the potential to pursue an IT partnership with these schools much more readily and easily.

Moreover, majority of the SWEEP schools are in provincial areas, making any inroads to IT education advancement better felt and appreciated. Also, eight of the SWEEP partner-schools have been identified by CHED as Centers for Excellence in IT education.

Similar to SWEEP, the IT partnership that is being proposed is the sponsorship of a Smart IT elective to be included in the university’s IT curriculum.

This IT elective, ADIS (Application Developers’ Intro School) used to be given to exclusively to newly hired Smart IT personnel. Now, ADIS is being successfully run in a number of schools (including Ateneo De Manila, Ateneo de Davao and Xavier University) and is being offered to third year and fourth year college students who already have good foundation in programming.

Offered as an elective class, this integrative course trains students for real-life IT projects in a telco environment. Through interactive lectures and casework, course participants are taught the rudimentary of systems integration and analysis as well as programming and testing. It is expected that by the end of the course, students will be ready to assume developer roles.

To teach the elective, a trainors’ training is held on a regular basis targeted for IT faculty members of partner schools. A faculty immersion program is likewise offered to partner schools interested to give their faculty exposure to real-life IT development work environment.

In the future, additional courses shall be developed and included into the SWEEP IT umbrella. SMART aims to enhance industry and academe partnerships and interactions, and SWEEP IT is a further step forward in this direction.

Click here to view the ADIS Course Design.

You may also download the ADIS Course Outline, Binder Segments, and Test Scripts HERE.