TO ENSURE a continued supply of BPO workers in the next two years, the Cebu IT-BPM Organization (CIB.O) is working with the Cebu City Government, academe and IT-BPO players to roll out training software for call centers among public senior high schools.
In an interview, CIB.O Managing Director Wilfredo “Jun” Sa-a Jr. said they are targeting senior high school students as the new workers for the BPO industry, as they are already supposed to be employable after finishing the new, two-year senior high program.
He said that the senior high school graduates would fill in the absence of college graduates in 2019 as a result of the K+12 basic education program.
“We are addressing a future problem (workforce supply) that will start next year,” said Sa-a.
By 2019, Cebu City is expected to have 200,000 workers employed in the IT-BPM sector, from the current 140,000.
Rolling out the Learning English Application for Pinoys (Leap) among public senior high schools is a fitting program to prepare the senior high school students for BPO work, should they opt not to pursue college education, said Sa-a.
English training
The organization targets to install the program in 27 senior high schools in the province, with Apas National High School being the lead school.
This program is a partnership with the Cebu City Government through City Councilor Joy Young, who heads the city school board, DepEd, DICT, IT/BPM companies, and CIB.O.
Leap is a stand-alone, computer-based training program with lessons and exercises to help users improve their English language skills, developed by the University of the Philippines and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
Leap’s main goal is to address the need to improve the basic English proficiency of Filipinos to meet the growing outsourcing industry’s demands.
The software contains accent-neutral and free from culture-based idiomatic expressions. Its target users are Filipino high school students and early collegiate students.
Sa-a said Leap is a good foundation program as it improves the oral communication skills of aspiring BPO workers with grammar, vocabulary and speech modules covered in the training.
While senior high schools are interested to adopt the program, one challenge faced in rolling out Leap, according to Saa, is the short supply of headsets needed for the training.
“We have already reached out to the BPO players and some have already donated, but we need more,” said Sa-a.
All for free
The CIB.O official also clarified that the Leap program is for free and that it is not a mandatory course among senior high students. But graduates of the Leap program have high chances of landing a job in the industry after graduation.
Sa-a sees this partnership among the City, academe and industry as a golden opportunity for the IT-BPO industry to move up to high-value services, with the movement of current BPO employees to higher job responsibilities and the absorption of the qualified senior high graduates to handle the entry-level jobs in outsourcing.
“If this program will take off and become successful, I don’t think the industry would experience a shortage of manpower in the next few years,” said Sa-a.
To complement the Leap program, CIB.O is also going around senior high campuses in the city to promote the BPO industry among senior high students.
CIB.O completed its initial Career Caravan in the first week of August. It covered 20 schools and reached out to more than 5,000 senior high students on the first run. This was supported by Convergys, Qualfon, Sykes, ePerformax, Tech Mahindra, QBE, Azpired, Cognizant, First Source Solution, Innodata and Performance 360.
It will have its second round in September this year.
“Because the Leap program is not a mandatory elective, the Career Caravan would give us the opportunity to introduce the IT-BPO industry to these students and invite them to jumpstart their career with us,” said Sa-a.
An entry-level position in the BPO industry has a starting salary of P15,000 per month.
According to an online job site, Jobstreet.com, of the 3,000 Cebu-based jobs listed in JobStreet from January to March this year, BPO-related jobs accounted for 35 percent.
Based on the JobStreet Cebu Jobs and Salary Report, 47 percent of the jobs for fresh graduates belonged to the BPO sector, primarily in customer service, IT/software, and education specialist positions. The IT-BPM industry is embarking on an aggressive six-year plan that targets nearly $40 billion in revenues and 1.8 million more jobs by 2022.