In a presscon today held at the CIIT College Campus in Quezon City, CIIT College President Sherwin O leads digitalization through innovation and communications. CIIT introduces two programs for future business innovators and technopreneurs which Mr O believes would complete the cycle, getting all the knowledge about technology, and being to develop that strategy to make it available to the market.
It has always been part of the core of CIIT to innovate and close the gap between knowledge and industry needs. This was the main reason why CIIT was established.
When CIIT chairman Niel Dagondon established Anino Games, Inc., the first and largest game development studio in the country, in the early 2000’s, he realized then that there was a gap between the industry demand and the higher education programs. Thus, CIIT was born.
CIIT has always been into “arts and tech,” but it is missing the business aspect that ties things together. The pandemic—when new business owners seized opportunities as almost everything moved online— paved the way for us to come up with a unique entrepreneurship program.
This inspired the Board, which thought it was time to go full circle and give students the chance to turn their business ideas into reality—just as how Niel saw an opportunity amid the gap in the industry.
CIIT happens to have been using different technologies in its daily operations already, which is what we wanted to share so that future entrepreneurs can also use them to revolutionize how their future organizations can be operated and managed.
This was also very timely as the school now has an ecosystem of innovators and creators who can make their ideas a reality, much like how Silicon Valley has fostered great talents.
On top of these, two members of our Board have Master of Entrepreneurship degrees.
Innovation is part of our DNA as it is one of our core values. We seek to continuously improve systems, processes, and our way of doing things.
Our courses are customized based on industry needs and standards, which have been validated and recognized by seasoned professionals and our more than 100 company partners.
We leverage automation in almost every clerical task in the school administration system. But none of our employees were replaced by these automated systems. Instead, they became increasingly efficient, productive, accurate, and agile. More than ever, our employees are now focused on more value-driven tasks and tackle higher level challenges, pushing CIIT towards faster innovation.
We believe that innovation through the use of technology allows us to close the gap much faster and grow much faster. We want to equip our organizations as well as Filipinos with these knowledge and skills which will allow us to be at par with international organizations. We believe that technology is a great equalizer, which the pandemic has proved to us.
Our students are all able to experience their studies either through modular means or through their computers, taking away the advantages of sprawling campuses, etc. It proved that, especially in our case, the early adoption of technology gives a big advantage to any type of organization. Those who have their systems in place survive the challenge.
We focus more on the practical applications and see to it that we are agile enough to adjust the curriculum and tailor to the needs of the industry.
Each of the subjects in our BS Entrepreneurship and ABM programs is paired with an industry-grade software used by local and international companies.
We not only teach our students business theories or concepts like marketing, operations, human resource, finance or accounting, but we also teach them how to optimize business tasks through various applications used by organizations worldwide. This also enables them to execute their ideas immediately.
For example, in marketing, we go beyond the ordinary curriculum by also teaching students how to actually create and launch Facebook advertising campaigns and analyze the reports.
In operations, as another example, we teach our students how to optimize clerical tasks using Airtable so that they would be able to focus more on growing the business.
CIIT also conducts annual consultation with its industry partners and non-partner organizations for a curriculum validation and enhancement activity.
The principal goal of this annual meetup and discussions with different institutions is to ensure that the industry-standard skill requirements and current trends will be adapted in the future and in the current programs offered by CIIT.
This industry-based approach to education and curriculum design will enable CIIT to not only contribute in addressing the gap between the industry and education, but also to live up to its goal of producing industry-ready graduates.
Unlike most entrepreneurship and business management programs, CIIT goes beyond the usual expectation of discussing classroom concepts and creating traditional business models. CIIT transforms the experience by also adding digital platforms and business-level tools to allow our students to turn their ideas into real tech startups.
- What learning technologies are you using in teaching these new courses?
Course Title and Tech Tool
Digital Marketing 1 – Facebook, Mailchimp, Google Analytics
Digital Marketing 2 – ZOHO / Airtable
Business Implementation 1 – Bubble.io
Business Implementation 2 – Bubble.io
Accounting 1 – Quickbooks Online
Web Design – Softr, WordPress
Integrated Business Management – Airtable
Application Development and Emerging Technology – Bubble.io
Business Plan Preparation – Notion
Social Entrepreneurship – Bubble.io
The challenge of all schools when it comes to administrative and clerical work is very heavy and plenty, but using technology can greatly increase productivity as well as create a culture of early adopters and innovators.
We believe that having innovative technology allows us to achieve higher levels of efficiency and frees up more time which then enables our faculty and students to focus on the most important thing which is education.
We are focused on developing and delivering high-quality educational experience for students and we want to share this to other schools as well.
In today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable world, innovation has become more critical than ever. We believe that by leveraging new technologies and creative solutions, we can accomplish tasks faster and more efficiently than ever before.
This increased productivity has a significant impact on economic growth as it enables businesses to achieve their goals more quickly and effectively.
Would you consider your new offerings tailor-fit for the TikTok generation?
Yes, the new program offerings are tailor-fit to the TikTok generation, majority of which are between the ages 16-34 as well as anyone who considers themselves early adopters.
This audience are wired to be creators themselves so our programs will resonate well with them because these will equip them with the knowledge and skills to make their ideas come to life in a very efficient way.
nnovation is part of almost all of the subjects because apart from the most learning competencies of all ABM subjects, we have included industry standards in the field of business, which make it more unique, innovative and adaptive to the evolving world of business.
While learning all the subjects, innovation of ideas will be integrated especially during the business enterprise simulation subject and the inquiries investigation and immersion subject through the exhibit of their ideas put into life.
Are these courses more expensive compared to those in other, more traditional schools?
Our college tuition fee ranges from P119,000 to P132,000 a year depending on the specific program. The amount already includes laboratory and miscellaneous fees.
Do you upgrade or modify the curricula of these new CIIT courses to bring it up to speed with the evolving or emerging developments in business management and practices?
Yes, every year, with the help of our company partners, we upgrade or modify our curricula so that the applications or technologies that we use are up-to-date. We regularly conduct curriculum validation with our industry partners.
- Do you offer scholarships or flexible tuition arrangements for the economically challenged but promising students?
- Interweave Scholarship is offered to incoming and new CIIT students who recently graduated from Senior High School. To qualify, the applicant must be an honor student with an excellent academic record at his previous SHS.
- Future CIITzen Scholarship Grant is awarded to the Top 50 successful applicants of the CIIT College Admissions Test.
- CIIT Financial Aid is offered to currently enrolled students in good standing who are experiencing financial challenges in paying for the school fees. The student must have completed at least one academic year to qualify for this program.
Scholarship details are available here.
Do you draw information and ideas from school-funded research in developing or updating innovation-oriented curricula?
Yes, every single move in the school is very data-driven, highly informed decisions. Major decisions are made based on data, which was also one of the factors why we were able to go through the pandemic with ease.
Can you describe the campus atmosphere or culture of CIIT? What do students look forward to the most with their CIIT education?
Students are free to voice their opinions and are heard by the school.
As a college of both Art and Tech and a diverse community, we encourage collaboration of all kinds. Our students not only learn the value of logic but also take pride in their creative spirit. We welcome creators from many different backgrounds because we recognize that each and every one of you is capable of weaving a future together.
And because our community is made of multiple individuals with different expertise, students get to thrive in an ecosystem that pushes them to succeed. Imagine an Entrepreneurship student wants to start a business—he/she can readily tap on a Multimedia student to design their logo and ads, a friend taking up Computer Science to program your app, a colleague in an org taking up Game development to build interactive media, or a friend of a friend taking up Information systems to analyze data, all because they’re already here at CIIT.
How has the lives of the students and the parents changed since the introduction of the Edusuite platform two years ago?
Edusuite is easily the most powerful tool for any college as it automates a significant amount of processes that require traditional schools a lot of manpower to plan and execute.
A typical enrollment of a school with 1,000 population requires the time of the dean, program heads, finance department, and HR department to name a few.
But in CIIT we are able to handle 1,600 students with just one registrar. The software enables business continuity without requiring a lot of manpower nor manual processes.
For Entrepreneurship, can you share notable members of the faculty and their background? What class will they be teaching?
CIIT prides itself with 90 percent of its faculty members being industry practitioners.
We have a program head who has worked in almost every top agency. The CIIT president himself teaches entrepreneurship classes having graduated with a Master of Entrepreneurship degree from Ateneo de Manila University. He is also involved in community outreach and very active in a non-government organization.
What is CIIT’s view or stance on the rise of new technologies such as artificial intelligence or non-fungible tokens?
Artificial intelligence, like any new technology, is something that we fully embrace. It is highly encouraged in our faculty and staff. So we understand how it impacts our students and how we teach them.
So far, technology has really freed us from huge amounts of time-consuming clerical tasks and thought the constant fear of society on how technology will replace the workforce the complete opposite has happened to our team because we have never removed any employee as a result of AI and automation.
Instead, these people gained so much more time to do higher level of thinking and have innovated to the point where our efficiency and productivity was at its peak during the pandemic and as we returned to face-to-face classes.
In offering these courses, how does CIIT ultimately help equip our next generations of entrepreneurs who will shape the future of our country’s business and industry?
At CIIT, we offer a wide range of courses that are designed to help equip the next generation with the necessary skills and knowledge to shape the future of our country’s business and industry.
We understand that entrepreneurs play a crucial role in driving economic growth and creating job opportunities, which is why we tailored it to foster a culture of innovation and encourage the values of integrity and innovation that our school espouses.
We firmly believe that technology is a great equalizer and can be used to create opportunities for all. Our courses are designed to harness the potential of technology and help our students develop the necessary skills to succeed in the digital age. We ensure that our students are well-rounded and able to adapt to the ever-changing business landscape so they could change how businesses can be done in the country in the future.
