STI Turns 21 @ 21: Providing modern education to the Filipino youth

It was one sunny Sunday afternoon on August 21, exactly 21 years ago, when the death of a respected political legend has spawned the birth of what would turn out to be yet another legend. Although a lot of pundits say that it was just a lucky coincidence, the demise of then Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. actually marked the beginning of a new era for the Philippine education market. It was then that STI, or Systems Technology Institute, was born. Stranger still is the fact that the color yellow, which has been used to symbolize Ninoy"s martyrdom, has also been chosen as the school"s official colors.

 

"During those days, a lot of companies in the country were still just beginning to understand the value of computers. It was boom time for the Information Technology (IT) industry and a huge number electronic data processing requirements in the country has been creating a huge demand for a computer literate workforce," reminisces Mr. Augusto Lagman, one of the founding members of STI and now the Director of the STI Education Services Group. "Since our economy was not that good at that time, we opted for short courses first to allow our graduates to have a chance at getting gainful employment after just two short years," he added.

 

Spurred by the need of the times, the company"s four founders started what they envisioned to be the pillars of modern IT education. Guided by a self-professed mission to fulfill the impending need to deliver quality computer education to as many Filipinos as possible, Mr. Lagman and his associates – Mr. Edgar H. Sarte, Mr. Herman T. Gamboa, and Mr. Benjamin A. Santos – quickly put up the first troika of STI schools in the vicinity of Makati, Binondo and España extension in Manila.

 

In just two years, the first provincial location was put up in Baguio City followed by another school in Cebu City, then still another in Davao with just merely about a year separating them. So all in all, the first six STI schools already covered the whole nation, with one each in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and the other three in NCR. What made STI an entirely different IT education proposition was the fact that the school has already scored a "first" in the industry with the implementation of a more detailed, standardized courseware for its faculty to deliver.

 

"This meant that in all STI schools, the same quality of learning materials have already been made available so that each student, no matter in which STI school he may be studying, gets to learn the same thing for the same course," explained Mr. Lagman.

 

Beginning in the late '80s to the early '90s, STI"s great desire to serve as many students as possible was amply rewarded when IBM, then considered as the leading hardware company worldwide, opted to partner with them. STI was appointed as IBM"s Education Partner for mid-range systems education. Soon after, the company acquired its own mainframe and AS 400 mid-range computer systems that effectively signaled the start of the school"s network system.

 

"We decided to go on a full-scale expansion program, offering more courses and setting up more schools in every nook and cranny of the country. We"re actually proud to have lent a hand in helping shape the future for the Filipino youth," narrates Mr. Lagman. "The secret for the company"s success, I believe, is STI"s ability to adopt quickly to the changing needs of the environment," he adds.

 

And adopt, the company really did. As the economy was starting to look up again by around the start of year 2000, STI started offering courses other than just ICT. This was also done to enable the company to respond quickly to the changing needs of the times. Nurses were starting to get very much in demand abroad while Filipino engineers were making waves in the Middle East. Thus, STI started offering more 4-year courses in the fields of information technology, healthcare, business, education and engineering. Today, the company is now considered to have one of the largest network of more than a hundred schools offering a comprehensive portfolio of bachelor"s degree courses and diploma courses as well as certificate programs.

 

At the onset of the 21st century, as new economies emerged to necessitate the need for nations to develop more globally competitive knowledge workers, STI was once again able to expand its vision, this time expanding its services with the introduction of a unique human resource value chain called the E2E system. Simply put, the new system provided students with all the help they could get from the time they enroll in STI up to the time they graduate and look for job employment.

 

While still continuing to be a trailblazer in the field of ICT education, STI is also seeking to develop ICT-enabled professionals whose skills are at par, if not better, than their foreign counterparts abroad. Using standardized, industry-approved courseware, the same quality of learning tools and content as well as teaching standards are being delivered throughout STI"s member-schools: be it in Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao – and now even in Indonesia and Vietnam.

 

The truth is, STI is currently setting its sights on opening new schools in these territories as part of its expansion programs. Beginning in September this year, an STI school will be put up in Yogyakarta and Dempasar in Indonesia while others will be put up in Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon in Vietnam. The company"s learning maestros are also looking at offering specific, individualized courses in the future that would showcase a student"s inherent talent, say in communications, so that graduates may be already be considered as "specialists" even though what they"ve taken up is just a four-year course. The idea came out as a result of an observation made in local call centers where Filipino CRM practitioners, who were supposed to be proficient in the English language, seemed to have lagged behind in terms of speaking skills compared to their counterparts in other countries, like China and India.

 

As the company celebrates its 21st anniversary this year, Mr. Lagman is a picture of contentment. And who wouldn"t be? Up to this day, the school he has helped built still encourages the Filipino youth to 'hold on to their dreams". And for its part, STI continues to 'make IT happen".