Bernardo M. Villegas
 
Featured Article
Meeting Demand for Data Analysts (Part 2)

           A longer-term effort to significantly increase the number of Big Data analysts in the Philippines is to introduce more formal courses, both undergraduate and graduate programs in this field.  Already there are encouraging signs that the leading institutions of higher learning like the Asian Institute of Management, the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, the Ateneo University and others are already offering or planning to offer specializations in business data analysis or data sciences.  What I will describe in this article are the various levels of competencies that academic programs can develop for the BDA sector as have been made available by the University about which I am most familiar, the University of Asia and the Pacific.  UA&P was a pioneer in offering a masteral program in applied business analytics which purport to produce as quickly as possible the different skill levels in the BDA industry, i.e., the data steward, the data engineer, the data scientist and the functional analyst.  This Master in Business Analytics (MABA) program is addressed to young professional people with undergraduate degrees especially in engineering, accounting and finance, economics, the sciences and the humanities.   Many of them can be found in the existing BPO-IT sector, especially among those who are already in the non-voice Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry. Others are self-employed entrepreneurs or middle-level managers in large corporations.

   Featured Books
POSITIVE DIMENSIONS OF POPULATION GROWTH

       The historical trends, empirical findings, and policy updates are discussed in detail in the essays compiled in this book. The most convincing argument that supports the thesis of the book, i.e. that population growth is a poitive factor in attaining sustainable human development, is found in the foreword to the book, which is adopted from an article written by Mr. Roberto de Ocampo, former Finance Secretary of the Philippines and multi-awarded finance official in Asia. Thanks to the continuing growth of the Philippines population, Filipinos are in more than 100 countries all over the world, contributing much-needed foreign echange and purchasing power to the Philippine economy and fostering the human and spiritual development of the most diverse of peoples and cultures on this planet.

   Featured Video
Antigua Forum Interviews 2012

 An interview with Dr. Villegas about the PH economy in Antigua Forum, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, last January 2012. See Link: