Thursday, September 01, 2005
Mandaue City to train residents for call center jobs
The Mandaue City Government will focus its efforts on developing the skills of Mandauehanons to fit the qualifications set by call centers.
Jonkie Ouano, special assistant and son of Mayor Thadeo Ouano, said many residents in the city are qualified to take on jobs in call centers.
“With a high literacy rate of around 70 percent, Mandaue has an available labor pool for call center work,” he said.
He admitted, though, that there is a need to equip applicants with skills and knowledge that call centers would require.
Through its Integrated Technological and Entrepreneurial Development (Ited) Office and Technical Employment and Deployment (TED) Office, Ouano said Mandaue would offer free short courses to help applicants qualify for the call center jobs.
The ITED Office, which was created for manpower training, is accredited with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
The free training is open to any interested applicant, but priority is given to Mandaue residents, Ouano said.
“We will coordinate with call centers and find out what their needs are. (We will also) ask their assistance in making the course content of the training,” he said.
He said, so far, only Convergys had asked assistance from the TED Office for its personnel needs.
Ouano said the short-term courses for call center jobs are projected to start in October.
Boost
The local economy will get a boost if more city residents land jobs in call centers, he said, adding that highly paid call center employees are called the “new age economic warriors.”
“With their purchasing power, they help drive our local economy, particularly our entertainment and tourism sectors. It’s about time that local governments like Mandaue gave support to firms that produce these new age economic warriors,” he said.
Mandaue will soon launch initiatives that would encourage call centers to open branches in the city by making it “easy” for them to operate there and by helping them with their demand for skilled workers, he said.
So far, Mandaue hosts one call center, Sykes Asia Inc.
Ouano also revealed that the TED office was able to help 7,431 Mandaue City residents get jobs from 1999 to 2004. For the first six months of this year, it helped some 700 applicants.
He said Mandaue has an 86 percent employment rate this year. (ALC)
(September 1, 2005 issue)
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