Wipro, DepEd work to improve English skills

Sunday, June 26, 2011

BUSINESS process outsourcing (BPO) company Wipro BPO Philippines Ltd. has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) to improve English skills of local graduates.

Through the Communication Excellence for Public Education (CEPE) launched last May, Wipro hopes to increase students’ test scores by helping public high school teachers improve their English oral and written skills through training and refresher courses.

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Under the agreement, DepEd will identify and nominate public high school teachers who will be given training by Wipro.

Since May, Wipro already trained 60 teachers in the Cebu Province division for three days. According to Wipro the two pilot classes were “already productive.”

DepEd 7 Director Recaredo Borgonia lauded Wipro’s CEPE program, saying it jived with the K+12 curriculum, the 12-year basic education program of DepEd.

“We need to develop the skills among students so they could respond to the needs of industries in their locality, such as BPOs,” Borgonia said.

He said the industry needs English-proficient workers but studies have shown a lack of English communication skills among students.

“We need teachers to be trained so they could produce high-quality students needed by the industries,” he said.

Wipro BPO Philippines Ltd. country head Romit Gupta said CEPE is just one of the programs the company is extending to the community. He said addressing the region’s English proficiency skills is one of the company’s immediate concerns.

Gupta said Cebu needed to improve the communication skills of its talent pool and raise its bar so it could continue supplying highly qualified manpower to the growing BPO industry in the region.

While CEPE is a pilot project in Cebu, Gupta said Wipro also has plans of rolling out the program in Manila.