Hefty pay draws architects to BPOs

The handsome pay packages offered by the outsourcing industry is now pulling more and more young architects to work for this rapidly flourishing sector instead of practicing their profession on field.

United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) regional district C-1 director Alan G. Choachuy said that other than the current global crisis which has resulted to a slowdown of projects, their sector is also facing challenges on the sustainability of their profession as most young architects are now entering the outsourcing sector.

Choachuy said that young architects, especially the fresh graduates, are attracted with the high salary offered by BPO firms for Auto CAD designers.

Although they cannot stop these new graduates from seeking an alternative career that is very far from their profession, Choachuy lamented that this is slowly creating a shortage of draftsmen and apprentice on their part.

BPO design firms usually offer a pay ranging from P15,000 and up depending on the skills, while newcomers are paid around P100 per hour while experienced ones are paid around P500 per hour.

“It’s good on one side because they get employed and they earn their salaries but it is also bad because they cannot apply the skills and the knowledge on architecture that they have learned and studied in school,” he said.

He said that most of the time, those who have worked in BPO firms and were paid big salaries end up not taking the board exam at all while some who try to return to the profession forget about their trainings and skills because they have been accustomed to doing minor skill-related design jobs.

“The skills are not the problem with the new breeds but it is just that most of them prefer the easier way to succeed and it is through going abroad or to work in an outsourcing firm for the US market. But they should learn it the hard way like the way we do it before,” said Choachuy.

He said that other than BPO firms based in the country, most architects are also attracted of going abroad especially the experienced ones.

Choachuy said that there is a big demand for architects in countries such as United States of America, New Zealand, and Australia and there are also some architects form their sectors who are now working in architectural firms in Singapore and Dubai.

Architect Karl Cabilao, president of the Sugbo chapter of District C-1, said that production work abroad only requires minimal experience for applicants and knowledge on Autocad and other design software is already a sure ticket to go abroad.

One of Sugbo chapter’s advocacies is to teach younger architects and would-be architects more professional growth and in line with the recent celebration of the National Architecture Week, their chapter recently chaired an architecture forum with a guest of speaker from the Board of Architecture in the Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC).

He said that their forum aims to educate the younger breed of architects on how the architecture act of 2004 or the RA 9266 can be useful in their professional practice of architecture.