Sunday, August 24, 2008 CICT: Educational reforms needed for BPOs
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- With the growing number of call centers in the province or the influx of possible employment from Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology (IT) related jobs, the IT sector here has called for reforms in the education system to meet current needs of the market.
This was revealed by Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) at the Hilaga Philippines (formerly Paskuhan Village) during Saturday's Student Conference on Information Technology Education (Scite).
Ibrahim lamented that out of 100 applicants for BPO jobs, only five had been hired. This, he said, is the usual average for the entire country.
"Unless we make drastic changes in the education system, we may not meet the growing needs for the market. The BPO and IT markets are supply driven, the more available manpower we have, the higher the growth rate is," he said.
Ibrahim gave specific attention on the province, saying that Pampanga schools should prepare their students for the needs of the local BPO sector in Clark Freeport and the call center companies in other parts of Pampanga, including this capital city.
He said that most applicants fail because of poor communication skills, especially in the English language, weak analytic ability, and least attention to detail. The skills wherein applicants fail miserably, he said, are the basic core skills needed in the BPO jobs.
The CICT said the IT sector can absorb many graduates if only their skill fit its needs.
In the latest surveys, Cebu tops all regional and city growth centers in terms of number BPO workers. Absorption rate for applicants in Cebu is 37 percent while Metro Manila only has five percent absorption rate.
Cebu, compared to other growth centers in IT, has a dynamic cooperation between schools and the IT sector. Even with government support, both sectors set up ways to address the needs of the IT sector.
"Pampanga can rival Cebu if it just pays attention to the quality of education of its graduates. There is also a need for schools to coordinate with the IT sector to identify weak areas in the education system and come up with courses and programs that can best prepare graduates," Ibrahim added.
There is an estimate of 198,000 BPO employees in the country. From this, a total of 27,000 employees are situated in Cebu alone, while Pampanga pays host to 3,000 to 4,000 BPO employees.
The CICT is looking on spreading call centers and other BPO business to the provinces and cities.
Despite being one of the new frontiers in IT business, the country still has a mismatch of graduates for the needed jobs. The growth rate for graduates in Pampanga is set at 18 percent. The entire country is at 53 percent, which is well enough to accommodate the surge in the number of graduates.
Over 400,000 college graduates annually out of 90 million populations and a 36 million size labor force with literacy rate of 92.6 percent the country still has a relatively low absorption rate for graduates. This is due to the mismatch of jobs and quality of graduates.
To solve this, the CICT is proposing the establishment of IT councils by schools and the IT sector and launching of the Services Science, Management and Engineering (SSME).
The SSME is a new discipline that looks at products and processes in the services industry. Now, it is adopted by 150 universities in 34 countries for both undergraduate and graduate programs.
The program is designed to address complex processes and problems in the services industry, services that are becoming to be a dominant contributor to the national growth domestic product.
"But all of these could only be achieved through proper development of our education system," Ibrahim stressed. (IOF)
