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Friday, March 31, 2006
Arroyo pushes call center work for retiring state workers
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said government employees, particularly those opting for voluntary retirement, should consider becoming call center operators in order to earn higher wages while streamlining the bureaucracy.
"We'd also like to encourage many of our government employees now because there is this general impression that outside of the military, the police and the teachers that there is an overstaffing. We'd like to encourage those who, especially in government you do learn to speak a lot of English, we'd like to encourage the young people in government to go and work, to apply in this very nice opportunity," Arroyo said in a roundtable discussion Wednesday with labor and trade officials.
She said there is also no age limit in the call center industry and that the only limitation is that candidates should be able to speak "call center English."
Augusto Syjuco Jr., chairman of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), said one of his regional directors wanted to retire to become a call center operator.
"Why not? Why not? We encourage them to go where the market beckons. And the market beckons through the salary rate. That's what we'd like them to do," Arroyo said.
She also said she has ordered Tesda to set aside 100,000 scholarships for those working in call centers to enter call center finishing schools that would hone their communication skills. She also encouraged schools to become finishing schools.
Syjuco said even if left on its own, the call center industry can hit a million workers, and even Arroyo's target of two million in 2010 with government intervention.
He said they will meet on Saturday with officials of schools and key industry players regarding the upgrading of their facilities and that on Tuesday, the Tesda and the labor department will be signing a memoranda of agreement (MOA) with major industry players and educational institutions.
Arroyo said the pool of finished call center personnel is so small against a large demand that they are pirating from one another and that some are going out into the provinces where there are pools of English-speaking young people to further train to have call center English.
Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the entry point in the call center industry is P15,000 to P20,000 per month, which is not bad, as long as the potential worker is willing to work the graveyard shift most of the time at first.
Arroyo, meanwhile, said job opportunities are also available in the shipping business as revealed to her by Mitsui OSK Lines president Akimitsu Ashida in a courtesy call. She said Ashida told her that MOL, in partnership with Magsaysay Lines, is expanding its training facilities at the Magsaysay Institute of Shipping in Cavite at a cost of P150 million.
Ashida said the expansion will accommodate an increase in the number of cadets from 240 to 450 per year who will train to become officers on board our vessels. He also said MOL will set up ship management operations in the Philippines this year.
He said MOL employs 5,700 Filipino seafarers and 4,000 more Filipinos are on board their ships at the moment.
Arroyo said engineering graduates can train to be marine engineers for nine months in order to get a monthly salary of US$5,000. (JMR/Sunnex)
(March 31, 2006 issue)
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