By Chelsey Keith P. Ignacio, Special Features Writer
Technologies have been increasingly adopted nowadays and would likely further expand in the future. This shows the value of technology professionals.
The information technology (IT) industry now has the highest salary in the country by specialization and position level, according to the Jobstreet Salary Report 2022. StackTrek offers an opportunity that it calls an “ambitious, all-hands-on-deck” initiative to help you kick-start your tech career.
In partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), StackTrek’s Code Your Future seeks to get young people into coding and transform the next generation into tech professionals.
“No other subjects will open as many doors in the 21st century as programming. It is a type of knowledge that will transform your earning potential and change the economic outlook of your family,” StackTrek CEO Billy Yuen said. “So, Code Your Future is about helping people to understand the possibility of a tech career. And more importantly, we help to get them start to coding.”
DICT Undersecretary for Government Digital Broadcast Television and the Digitization of the Entertainment Industry Sector Arnold “Ali” Atienza believe the initiative could help people looking for jobs and even the country. “Rest assured, DICT is going to push for programs like this, which we know will help the country, will help our fellow Filipinos. And hopefully, we can flood the world market with Filipino programmers,” he said.
Code Your Future comprises a series of activities designed to support people, from non-coders to experienced developers, who want to have a successful career in technology.
The initiative includes online programming trainings that will educate non-coders or career shifters on how to write their first line of codes.
“You can learn from these coding trainings, and there is already a platform that you can use for this for free,” shared StackTrek’s Head of Growth Haifa Carina Baluyos. “There are also boot camps that anyone can avail, and it’s completely for free that the only requirement here is how committed are you to really learn and push through throughout the trainings.”
Programming graduates will also have support in preparing for their technical interviews as Code Your Future will also provide hands-on interview kits.
“Especially if you’re graduating students who will be applying for your first job, definitely you don’t have experience yet. So we will be guiding those talents in that area,” Ms. Baluyos assured.
“Apart from just being able to be good in public speaking or talking to interviewers, one of the critical parts here in the IT industry is how are they able to pass the technical examinations or assessments,” she added. “That’s one of the areas that we really want to focus on because a lot of the applicants, they usually fall in this area.”
Code Your Future will also help match talents with opportunities through online meet-and-greet, networking sessions, and career fairs with tech companies.
StackTrek piloted the Code Your Future initiative with a webinar on “Jumpstarting Your Tech Career” last April 29. The session covered tech career trends and steps to get started in programming. Total beginners also learned and were able to code their first program in 15 minutes.
StackTrek is a tech platform aiming to develop programming talent and connect them with career opportunities. It also brought the StackLeague, the largest online programming league in the country, partnered with some of the biggest tech companies including Accenture, AWS, Microsoft, and many more.