Filipinos off to learn more than just English

If the government will have its way, Filipinos will not just be known the world over for their ability to speak English, but other languages as well.

That vision is one step closer to becoming reality following the agreement between the Board of Investments (BoI) and computing giant IBM Philippines to eventually put up a facility that will train existing and potential business process outsourcing personnel in languages other than English.

According to Ming Espineda, research analyst at Canada-based XMG Global, the planned training facility would be part of the BoI-IBM partnership dubbed “Philippines as the Global Leader in Multilingual BPO.”

“The partnership is a purely BoI-IBM initiative. However, the benefits are not exclusive to just IBM or BPO employees. Setting up a training facility to develop multilingual talents is part of the plan of this partnership. A move to encourage (overseas Filipino workers) to return and practice at work the language they have learned abroad will be part of the goal,” she said in an e-mail sent to the Inquirer.

IBM commissioned XMG to conduct a study on the potential of the Philippines as a multilingual BPO location.

Espineda added that another objective of the BoI-IBM partnership was to “simplify and integrate processes and policies on work permits for foreign nationals and visa applications for local talents going on knowledge-transfer (training) abroad.”

The partnership also aimed to tap the academe to initiate programs that would increase the number of people proficient in Nihongo, French, German and Spanish, she said.

The quality of language training should also be improved.

Right now, she related that there was a lot of interest in Asian languages, particularly Mandarin and Nihongo, in the BPO sector.

There was also an increasing demand for European languages such as Spanish and German.

“This aligns with the global trend of shifting and diversifying the BPO sector’s client portfolio beyond the US and other English-speaking countries,” she said.

She said that the Philippines currently had a “limited supply” of multilingual talents to address the burgeoning demand.

In Metro Manila, for example, there were only around 9,000 multilingual individuals, and not all of them were doing BPO work.

Many of them worked in the academe, government and hospitality industry.

“Due to the strong service orientation of Filipinos and their relative ease of learning a new language, the Philippines has a strong potential to grow its non-English BPO market. Companies such as IBM have recognized this potential,” she said.

According to IBM Philippines country general manager James Velasquez, the company’s local BPO business supported more than one million client employees in 15 languages out of Manila, providing global support to 84 countries in North and South America, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.