MISAMIS OCCIDENTAL (PIA)-- An official of the Department of Information and Communications Technology encouraged graduating students to create ideas and aspire to become the chief executive officer (CEO) of their own companies.

Speaking at the Let’s Talk MisOcc, a forum organized by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Misamis Occidental, Eugene C. Raposala III, provincial officer of DICT in Misamis Occidental said there is an old concept where parents would urge their children to apply for jobs in big companies after graduation.

"We want to change that,” he said.

“Develop your capstone project so that it will solve problems; usually, startups are ideas that solve problems para makatabang siya sa problema [so that it helps solve problems] and become a business. Hopefully, in the future, we can have a startup from MisOcc,” he added.

Companies that started as startups include apps like Grab, social media networks like Facebook, and delivery apps. “The startup is really scalable; paspas siya mu-expand [it expands very fast], and it uses the internet,” explained Raposala.

Misamis Occidental has universities and colleges, particularly Misamis University, the University of Science and Technology of the Southern Philippines (USTP), Immaculate Conception College in Ozamiz, La Salle University, Gov. Alfonso D. Tan College (GADTC), and Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science and Technology (NMSC).

"Even though our focus is on the startup, we really focused on MisOcc this year,” he said.

The Philippine Startup Challenge is a yearly competition for students. “In terms of startup, wala kaayo si MisOcc nag-participate, though we are trying nga mudaghan si MisOcc karon [MisOcc did not participate much, although we are trying to increase MisOcc now]," he added.

Before, it was difficult to join because you needed a mentor who had received training from DICT, but some schools were unable to send a representative due to financial restrictions and the bootcamp's typical location in Zamboanga.

But starting this year, mentors are not required to join bootcamps.

“Dili na siya gina-require as long as naa silay mentor within their school and they can really join. That is why now we will have a series of caravans to different schools in MisOcc [It is no longer required as long as they have a mentor within their school and they can really join. That is why now we will have a series of caravans to different schools in MisOcc],” Raposala said.

This year, the DICT-10 is looking forward to participants coming from MisOcc to present at the national level. (JMOR/PIA-10/Misamis Occidental)