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The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P)
members offer employment for new graduates at an astonishing rate of
more than 20,000 new jobs per month. This sector will provide
600,000 new jobs by 2010 and will contribute $13 billion to the
economy. However, there are few qualified job applicants. On the
average, only 4 percent of applicants are hired by call centers.
Although higher education institutions (HEIs) produce 400,000 fresh
college graduates every year, about three quarters of these
graduates have sub-standard English skills. There is a mismatch
between the call centers’ expectations of applicants and the
preparedness of graduates from Philippine HEIs. The acceptance rate
of graduates needs to greatly increase to meet the industry demand
for new employees.
Three strategies are addressing this shortfall:
industry lead standards are being developed and shared; government
is supporting training for near-hires; and partnerships between
academe and companies are being formed.
To establish industry standards, BPA/P initiated
a talent working-group from their members, the education sector and
government (CHED, DepEd, and TESDA). The talent working-group has
developed initiatives and designed curriculum as well as identified
pilot schools with support of industry members to test initiatives.
BPA/P offers insights on labor and employment market trends, issues
and direction and plays “applicants’ advocate” role during the
design and testing of talent plan. The industry group focuses on
securing government support for an industry talent initiative
through identifying funding sources.
Second, government funds have been committed
through a memorandum of agreement with the Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for the distribution of
P350-million worth of scholarship grants. These grants will focus on
refining the skills set of “near-hires” to increase their
chances of getting employed and, once employed, to abbreviate the
usual training period and make them productive in a shorter period
of time. The grants so far have benefited 44,331 call center agents,
6,346 medical transcriptionists, 389 software developers, 254
animators—50.66 percent of whom have found employment.
Partnerships between universities and companies
are a third strategy to address the readiness to work issue. These
partnerships have helped schools modernize curriculum to be more
industry relevant. The first case shows how a Makati school
partnered with a call center. The initiating factor for the company
was to find students from a nearby school to work on a local food
account during lunchtime. The new relationship fits the on-the-job
training needs of the school, provides pocket money for the student,
and hires graduates from the program. More than 100 students
participated in this program.
A second case concerns a school partly owned by
an industry partner that had greatly expanded its call center
business through a large acquisition. The school responded by
strengthening the conversational English for all students. It
transformed the call center English program into a required English
conversation class. The school’s faculty underwent professional
development training from English trainers in the call center.
The third case involves the call center
subsidiary of a large local telecommunications company forming
partnerships with the university belt school to provide a call
center elective for graduating students in their final semester. The
result was guaranteed jobs for those who passed this elective. Call
center curriculum was freely given.
In conclusion, the three strategies of
developing industry lead standards, government supported training
and academic industry partnerships are positive steps to address
employment needs for the industry and students alike.
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The author teaches at the Ramon V. del Rosario
Sr. Graduate School of Business of De La Salle University-Manila’s
College of Business and Economics. He can be e-mailed at rkeitel@yahoo.com
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