CHED, IBM team up, lay PHL claim to data analytics frontier

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and IBM forged Thursday a pact to configure some Philippine courses and develop Filipino college graduates who will form the world's first data analytics army. CHED chairperson Dr. Patricia Licuanan and IBM Philippines president Mariels Almeda Winhoffer signed the agreement on developing an analytics education master plan. Winhoffer said the Philippines is the first in the world to embark on such a program that taps into the country's strengths as the business processing capital of the world. Licuanan said the analytics "can be the game changer" in the Philippines efforts to lay claim to the "emerging global market opportunity for analytics estimated to be about $160 billion by 2015."

The CHED chairperson also said that aside from the business and IT ends of the analytics continuum the joint program with IBM will eventually work on the mathematics and engineering midsections. Winhoffer added that they chose to work first on the BPO and IT ends because these are the strengths of the Philippines. — DVM, GMA News