THE BUSINESS Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) will propose to the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) the inclusion of a service management core subject in college, an industry official said on Monday.
The proposal comes as BPA/P and CHEd signed a memorandum of cooperation yesterday at Eastwood City, Libis to start a five-year partnership to revise college curricula, develop a training program for teachers and an assessment tool to determine a graduate’s readiness to enter the information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries.
Noting the difficulty in finding qualified individuals to fill job openings in the industry, the group underscored human resource development as key to achieving the IT-BPO medium-term road map goals of generating $25 billion in annual export sales and creating 4.5 million jobs — 1.3 million directly and 3.2 million indirectly — by 2016.
“We believe that our partnership with CHEd will give a big boost to our efforts to tackle our number one challenge of improving the quantity and quality of our talent supply,” BPA/P Chairman Alfredo I. Ayala said on the sidelines of the memorandum signing.
“We do need help in developing human capital in the Philippines. At first, I was uneasy about pushing our college graduates to work in the BPO industry. But when I was introduced by the association to the broad nature of the BPO industry, I began to learn about opportunities the industry presents to our graduates in various fields,” CHEd Chairperson Patricia B. Licuanan told reporters.
“CHEd is throwing its full support behind the IT-BPO industry because we see this as a key long-term solution toward job creation and poverty alleviation. We are expecting that, through this collaboration, we can now give significantly more options to our future graduates so that they do not have to leave the country in order to win high-paying jobs where they can learn world-class skills.”
Under BPA/P’s proposal, colleges can incorporate a “BPO 101” in their core curriculum for all students, regardless of their specialization.
On top of this introductory subject, students can also make service management their minor course, said Martin Antonio S. Crisostomo, BPA/P external affairs executive director. Such students will be schooled in BPO culture, problem solving and other analytical skills, he added.
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By: EJD
Source: Business World, Nov. 14, 2011
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