PH: BPO and IT Courses

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will be hiring 500 workers a day in the next few years as the Philippines expand its coverage in the global BPO space, Oscar Sanes, president of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), said,

Given this demand, Leo Riingen, chief executive officer of Informatics Philippines, said the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) should reconsider its plan to impose a moratorium on information technology (IT) courses,

Riingen said what is needed is to revamp the IT education system. It has stagnated in some schools, resulting in the mismatch of skills and employability.

Sanez said the local BPO industry is currently creating 300 jobs a day or about 135,000 a year.

In the next six years, global BPO will require 3.4 million workers.

BPAP is targeting 1.3 million workers by 2016, or thrice the size from 446,000 workers in 2009.

Sanez said the IT-BPO industry is expected to bring in $25 billion in revenues by 2016, representing a 10 percent market share in global BPO and 9 percent of the gross domestic product.

This is double the sector’s contribution to the economy in 2009.

"We are creating 300 jobs a day. We want to escalate this to 500 in the next few years. But we want to make sure that players have a pool of workers," Sanez said.

He said only five of 100 walk-in applicants interviewed by BPOs are hired.

Riingen said IT schools should consider offering more high-value courses so the country can ride the fresh wave of demand for outsourced jobs in multimedia, digital arts and even forensic.

Riingen said IT schools have been offering the usual courses for decades such as BS Computer Science, BS IT and BS Information System.

"The world has changed. More skills are needed. Schools should start introducing such courses while encouraging more students to take up these new courses," Riingen said.

These, he said, will also promote the long-term goals of the Philippine BPO industry.

Jobs in web design, animation and digital arts pay more than medical transcription or call centers.

To address the short term needs of the BPO industry, both Sanez and Riingen support efforts of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to offer short IT-skills training since it is easier to rollout than to revamp a curriculum.


Programs initiated by TESDA in cooperation with BPAP are highly successful, with seven of 10 graduates landing a job in six months of less.

In yet another initiative of the private sector on IT education, Informatics Philippines, yesterday launched a corporate responsibility program aimed to improve overall IT education.

TESDA is putting in P20 million to kickstart the initiative called SHIFT or Society for Higher Information Technology Education.

Fueled by the immense growth potential in IT-BPO, SHIFT hopes to enable non-government organizations, local and national government units, BPO companies, students and other volunteers to invest in IT education and take advantage of the high demand.

"The current mismatch of what is being taught in schools and what the industry is looking for hinders us from realizing our true potential as a leader in the offshore sector. There is a need to adjust to the rapid growth that the IT-BPO industry is posing. It all starts with quality education," Riingen said.

Informatics graduates enjoy the highest success rate in getting IT jobs in the country at 70 percent, according to the 2010 TESDA Job Absorption Rate Review.

An IT employee in the country earns an above-average annual salary of $8,448 (P363,264), according to the ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark Survey 2009. This is more than double the average family income estimated at P172,0001 in 2006.

"It’s all about a shift in the way we view things. Access to a high-value industry, such as Information Technology, has already been presented to us Filipinos. By merging expertise and with combined efforts, we will be able to heighten the productivity and success of our workforce," Riingen stressed.

The P20 million will be used by BPAP to train qualified near-hires. Graduates from this program will be referred by BPAP to its BPO-member companies.

BPAP will come up with a reimbursement system to sustain the scholarships.

Source: Business Insights, 07 December 2010

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