BPO firm strengthens linkage with academe

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu operations of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) giant Convergys Philippines aims to strengthen its partnership with the academe to easily meet its increasing manpower demand.

The Cebu operations, which is now composed of eight teams, employing a total of 12,000 people, is utilizing its unique internship program as well as teachers training initiatives, particularly to state-owned universities and colleges in Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Negros.

Lorelie Juntilla, senior director for Cebu operations, said that although there is an existing industry-academe BPO talent development program, Convergys is getting ahead to directly link itself with the manpower supplier in a more holistic approach–getting teachers and students be more familiar to the industry.

At present, Convergys Cebu operations has partnered with 35 to 40 universities and colleges with around 600 to 700 interns or the on-the-job-trainees (OJTs).

Juntilla said Convergys is adopting a tweaked internship model, which is a bit specialized than a traditional jobs fair.

Historically, BPO pioneers have started its academe linkage through a specialized internship model in Cebu, with about 95 percent to 98 percent absorption rate.

In the last 12 years, the company now employs 60,000 people across the country. Its manpower count ballooned easily following its full acquisition of Stream Global last year.

In 2003, Convergys started with its first site in Makati when the industry was still in its infancy.

Likewise, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has called the outsourcing sector to make constant tie-up with the agency in order to sustain the Philippines' position as the center-stage of the global outsourcing industry, said TESDA executive director for certification office Maria Susan dela Rama

According to Dela Rama, the government's commitment to support the large employment generator–IT/BPM has been there since 2011, and that in order to further address the threat of qualified talents, constant connection and collaboration with the industry players should be strengthened.

In fact, she said that the Philippine government has allotted P2.2 billion budget under the Training for Scholarship Program of TESDA to fund and train deserving talents based on the current industry requirements in different sub-fields of IT and outsourcing.

TESDA, the human resource training arm of the government, targets to send 45,000 students for technical training in different partner schools under the UNESCO-initiated Technical Vocation Education and Training (TVET) program this year.

Since 2006, TESDA dispensed P3.05 billion dedicated for the training of IT-BPO human resource, which benefited 315,520 students and 307,724 of which have already graduated.