Academe needs to project English as "hip" language

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine academe needs to project the English language as “hip” again to the youngsters to sustain the country’s edge in attracting Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) investments.

The degrading English proficiency among the new generation is a challenge hounding the BPO industry right now, specifically for voice services sub-sector or the contact centers, said Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) president Benedict C. Hernandez.

Although such problem only comes next to the lack of infrastructure available for contact center investments in provincial sites, the language problem must be addressed as soon as possible, he said.

 This is the reason why, CCAP has initiated to implement the Advance English Pre-Employment Training (ADEPT) to train faculty members in the fourth year high school level on high English proficiency, as well as preparing students in this level to be readily employable for contact center companies immediately after they graduate from college.

“Language is still one of the main problems of the BPO industry here,” said Hernandez.

He said that once CCAP will establish its formal organization chapter in Cebu, there is a possibility to bring the ADEPT program here.

In Metro Manila, CCAP is working closely with schools to introduce this program, and is looking at training at least 20,000 fourth high-school students this year.

Part of the implementation is to offer the English language training course as mandatory or elective for the students, at the same time teachers will be trained by CCAP members for high mastery of English language.

“We will [try] to enable teachers to be role models and great teachers of the [English] language. This generation has lost valuing English as a competency,” said Hernandez who is also the senior vice president for Philippine operation of eTelecare Global Solutions.

In a recent survey result done by World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), in cooperation with AIM (Asian Institute of Management) Policy Center, it revealed that human resource infrastructure is one of the problems faced by industry players in the Philippines.

AIM (Asian Institute of Management) Policy Center executive director Lourdes Sereno said that while the Philippines is boasting for its advantage of human resource supply, a wide gap or mismatched between the academe and the industry has made the human resource supply in the Philippines a bit “invalid.”

 “The people we are providing are not responding to the industry’s needs. We have huge labor market but it’s just remaining a potential, because they don’t have the ‘right’ skills,” she said.

To gain and maximize the Philippines’ edge in labor market, which is one of the sub-sectors in the infrastructure category, Sereno said “we have to find out our core weaknesses. Educational system should be addressed.”

Industry and academe linkage should be strengthened further, while there is already efforts this particular partnership, it has to be improved. —Ehda M. Dagooc