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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Undergrads getting hired in call centers
Two years of college education plus good English would be enough to readily qualify anybody for a high-paying job in the country’s thriving call center industry.
House Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas, an educator, said large call-center firms are now aggressively recruiting college undergraduates as customer care, marketing and technical support personnel, as long as they have adequate English communication skills.
“We conducted a survey of call centers, and we found that their minimum requirement for job applicants now is just two years of tertiary schooling and English language competency,” Gullas said.
“Applicants with two years of college training and above-average English mastery actually now have much better chances of securing good-paying jobs in call centers than college graduates with poor English,” he pointed out.
“This is definitely good news not just for tens of thousands of working students supporting themselves through college, but also for those who simply want to start earning a living for themselves or for their families,” he said.
This just demonstrates the growing importance of English proficiency, according to Gullas, author of a bill reinstating English as the medium of instruction in schools.
Comprehension
The Cebuano lawmaker, however, stressed that his push for the revival of the English language is not just about jobs in business process outsourcing (BPO) providers.
“This is not just about jobs in call centers or in other BPOs. This is about gainful employment everywhere—here or abroad,” he said.
Like all skills, he said the ability to comprehend, speak and write good English is portable. “Once an individual leaves a call center job, English skills will be a distinct advantage wherever he or she goes,” he added.
Booming
“Let us take the case of the global travel industry. In most commercial airlines, cruise ships and hotels, the minimum requirement is just two years of college and adequate English, apart of course from certain height and weight stipulations,” Gullas said.
The country’s booming call center industry is expected to have at least 300,000 seats, fully engage up to 506,500 Filipinos and generate as much as $7.3 billion or P389 billion in annual revenues by 2010, according to the Contact Center Association of the Philippines.
At present, the industry has 106,500 seats and employs 179,000 Filipinos in 613 independent and in-house firms. (PR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 27, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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