How DEVCON is closing the tech gap in the Philippines

On the AIBC Stage at SiGMA Asia 2025, in a focused keynote titled Investing Early in the Philippines Tech Talent, Dom De Leon, Executive Director of DEVCON Philippines, shared a compelling vision of how grassroots tech education and community-driven development can bridge the country’s tech talent gap.

For over 15 years, DEVCON has been transforming the nation’s digital future. With programs ranging from robotics workshops for children to smart contract camps for university students and leadership training for working professionals, DEVCON’s reach has grown across 11 active community chapters nationwide. But as De Leon emphasised, the real investment isn’t just in programs, it’s in people.

De Leon broke down how early intervention in STEM and coding education is already reshaping the trajectory of Filipino youth, making them employable and competitive in a global, blockchain-first economy.

Building from the ground up

“We’ve gone from a vision of a digitally transformed Philippines to a technology-powered one and it starts with our youngest learners” De Leon told the audience. 

DEVCON’s work is deeply embedded in the communities it serves. In one standout example, De Leon shared how a recent code camp on the remote island of Mindoro introduced blockchain to attendees who had never heard of it, only for them to publish their first smart contracts within just four hours. “These aren’t just educational touchpoints,” he said. “They’re inflection points in the lives of future tech leaders.”

Smart partnerships with real impact

DEVCON’s partnerships with blockchain platforms and global tech initiatives are strategically designed for long-term outcomes. Rather than chasing vanity metrics, the team focuses on measurable transformation. “The same cost of setting up a booth can instead fund 500 smart contracts through our camps,” De Leon pointed out.

The organisation’s Metaverse Filipino Movement and collaborations with ICP are part of a wider push to shift the Philippines from a passive tech adopter to a builder of Web3 infrastructure. With over 20 hands-on bootcamps last year alone and more than 14,000 students reached face-to-face, the numbers speak to a growing movement.

Starting early with tech education

DEVCON’s youth-focused programming is rooted in one powerful idea, that inspiration must start early. De Leon explained that through initiatives like DEVCON Kids, the nonprofit is making computer science accessible, engaging and fun for children, even as young as nine. Using drag-and-drop coding tools, kids have created real-world prototypes like solar-powered projects, proving that programming doesn’t have to be intimidating.

De Leon goes on to explain that this initiative began with a simple but profound observation from DEVCON’s founder Winston Damarillo’s wife “You’re investing in graduating talent, but what about those who don’t even have access yet?”. That insight led to DEVCON Kids’ mission to inspire, enable and empower young learners, an early stage investment that begins nearly a decade before traditional coding camps. As De Leon explained, “Targeting them at the college level is already too late to inspire them as the next talent of Web3.” That’s why DEVCON is reaching into schools and underserved communities now, not later.

A video during the keynote captured this in action, a young student from a DEVCON Kids program proudly showcasing a working solar prototype they helped build. “There’s so much energy and potential in this generation,” De Leon added. “We’re doing this so that the Philippines doesn’t become just another petri dish for global tech but a mature, forward-thinking market for talent.”

In addition, programs like She is DEVCON are actively working to close the gender gap by fostering leadership and confidence in women across the tech pipeline.

Despite the funding hurdles that come with operating as a nonprofit in a rapidly commercialising space, DEVCON continues to prioritise mission over margin. “We’ve had to turn down projects that don’t align with our values, because the work we do isn’t just about technology it’s about trust.”, De Leon said.

With sustained, early-stage investment in tech education and grassroots innovation, the country’s next wave of developers, engineers and blockchain pioneers is already in the making.

Stay tuned for more updates, further insights and in-depth coverage from SiGMA Asia 2025.