Enough BPO jobs await skilled Dumaguete grads

Dumaguete City, Philippines  – Students from Negros Oriental and neighboring provinces need no longer worry about finding work after graduation because more than enough jobs are waiting for them in Dumaguete’s ICT-BPO Industry. ICT DGTE revealed the good news to the administration and department heads of the city’s Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) at an ICT-BPO Industry Forum for Educators held in December at SPi Global’s facilities in Bagacay.

ICT DGTE’s Forum for Educators had two goals: (1), to recognize the valuable contribution of HEIs to the success of BPO companies in the city, and (2), to be the de facto beginning of a closer partnership between HEIs and BPOs in bridging the gap between the skills of graduates and the entry level skills required in the industry, as reflected in the relatively low passing or hiring rates.

Fortunately, the factors with the greatest impact on the success of applicants have already been identified. ICT DGTE pooled the considerable resources of the local BPO companies to present concrete examples of these factors at the Forum. The speakers and their topics were: Suzanne Lu-Bascara, Site Director of SPi Global, and Dr. Jeff Sallaz on English Communication Skills; Ms. Bascara on Critical Thinking Skills; Eric Sardual, Managing Director of JTIGlobal, on Basic Computer Skills; and James June, Program Director of TeleTech, on Work Ethic.

ICT DGTE president Randolf Bandiola, and Dr. Jeff Sallaz, Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Sociology of the University of Arizona, answered what was uppermost in the minds of most educators: Why promote jobs in ICT?

Mr. Bandiola showed that ICT-BPO jobs were not merely about “answering phone calls”, even though by the end of 2010 the Philippines had surpassed India in the number of voice jobs. In Dumaguete, ICT-BPO jobs are currently in customer management (voice), copyediting, graphics, animation, web design, software programming, architecture, market research, medical transcription, and engineering. Meanwhile, companies involved in other non-voice work like legal research and accounting services, are checking out the city’s business conditions.

According to Dr. Sallaz, the industry could be a way for Negros Oriental “to leapfrog from an Agricultural Economy straight into the Information Economy”. BPOs have drawn most foreign direct investments in the country from 2000 to 2010, thus reversing

the lack of investment and manufacturing growth in the 70’s and 80’s. Incomes

derived from the industry, he said, are welcome additions to an economy that is “too dependent on agriculture and remittances”.

Worldwide, this is a rapidly growing industry where the Philippines is uniquely poised to increase employment from 500,000 individuals in 2010 to 1.3M by 2016. In fact, for 2011 alone, ICT DGTE projected the availability of more than 2000 jobs in Dumaguete’s BPOs. The reality, however, is that only about half of those positions were set to be filled by the end of 2011 because the critical factors mentioned above kept the hiring rate at around 20 to 30%.

Represented at the Forum for Educators were Foundation University, Silliman University, St. Paul University, COSCA, STI, AMA, and ACSAT. Also present at the Forum were City Administrator William Ablong who gave the Welcome Remarks, ICT DGTE directors Danah Fortunato and Ed Omictin, ICT DGTE consultant Joe Daigle, and DTI’s Medy Fernandez and Olivette Somido. (PR)

The Forum for Educators was an initiative of ICT DGTE, an association that includes ICT professionals, schools, and companies in the BPO industry, namely SPi Global, TeleTech, StudentUniverse, SOPHI, Entheos IT, JTIGlobal, Zero One Concept, Qualfon, and Marketing Plus. It’s Board of Directors are: President, Randolf Bandiola (Algorithm & Synapse); Vice President, Suzanne Lu-Bascara (SPi Global); Treasurer, Carlo Uy Matiao (Acelogic); Secretary, Danah V. Fortunato (StudentUniverse); Members, Dave Marcial and Ed Omictin (SU School of Computer Studies), Eric Sardual (JTIGlobal), Joel Balajadia (FU), and James June (TeleTech). (PR)(FREEMAN)