During the month of November, a road show dubbed Convergence 2009 will tour the top ten Next Wave Cities in the Philippine Cyber Corridor.

Convergence 2009 is an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) road show aimed at pursuing objectives outlined in the Commission on Information and Communications Technology’s (CICT) in four strategic areas: Cyber Services, Human Capital Development, eGovernment Development, and ICT Infrastructure.

The Next Wave Cities are cities located outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu that have talent and infrastructure development sufficiently for the ICT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries to set themselves up there. The road shows will tour Metro Pampanga, Cagayan de Oro City, Bulacan East and West, and Iloilo City.

Organizers recognize the BPO sector’s continuing substantial contribution to the Philippine economy while at the same time showcasing Filipino talent globally.

Convergence 2009 hopes to reach as many high school and college students in the New Wave Cities, and provide them with more information on BPO Information Technology. The talent caravan is a positive response to our country’s employment problem and is expected to showcase the Filipinos’ capability in meeting global standards as they compete for jobs that make use of state-of-the-art technology. Convergence 2009 connects potential Filipino talents to BPO organizations and eases the challenge of job and skills matching for companies in need of personnel.

We hope school administrators and other stakeholders will actively take part in the career talks and industry-academe forums that will be held in conjunction with the road show, to enable them to design or redesign their programs to make them more relevant and responsive to the needs of society and the various industries.