TESDA moves to increase workforce for BPOs
By Ronnel Domingo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 08:01:00 06/16/2008
Filed Under: Grants and Scholarships, business process outsourcing (BPO)
MANILA, Philippines—An increase in the hiring rate in contact centers is seen this year as the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is set to facilitate this year the training of 70,000 “near-hires.”
In industry parlance, near-hires are candidates who have passed initial screening by potential employers but still need to develop certain skills to qualify for employment.
Rita Trillo-Ugarte, president of ExcelAsia, said in a statement the company is working with TESDA to make “free skills-focused” training courses available to near-hires through the government’s Training for Work Scholarship program.
ExcelAsia is provider of recruitment and training services for the business process outsourcing industry.
“Near-hires don’t make the cut when they apply directly in call centers,” Ugarte said. “But because the competition for talent is tough in the contact center industry, our clients don’t want to let them go so they are sent to us to train and apply again after completing our program.”
She explained that aside from training candidates referred by clients, ExcelAsia also provides placement services, processing applications for employment in the contact centers where ExcelAsia’s recruitment specialists see a good fit.
Applicants who need further training are entered into the same intensive skills development course that near-hires referred by ExcelAsia’s contact center clients undergo, she said.
The Training for Work Scholarship program was launched in May 2006 and is aimed at developing the competencies of Filipino job seekers and empowers them to pursue promising careers in the BPO and other industries requiring highly critical skills.
TESDA has been subsidizing trainings costs of applicants for the past two years by distributing training vouchers to partner institutions like ExcelAsia.
Ugarte said that this year, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines had taken charge of distributing the vouchers.
Some 37,000 trainees have completed TESDA-facilitated near-hire training programs, 4,000 or 11 percent of which trained with ExcelAsia.
Ugarte attributes the company’s success to an effective and intensive training program design, and to ExcelAsia trainers who are passionate about making a difference in their students’ lives.
Ugarte said ExcelAsia is planning to expand its operations in Baguio City, Bacolod and provinces in Mindanao to support TESDA’s objective of facilitating the training of 70,000 near-hires in 2008.
“Last year, we were training around 400-500 near-hires every month,” Ugarte said. “This year, we are targeting to train at least 1,000 students every month.”
|
