30 January 2012
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is prepared to review and enhance its Training Regulations (TR) in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry amid threat of the passage of a bill in the United States that discourages firms from outsourcing overseas, TESDA Director General Joel Villanueva said.
While he believes that the bill will not have a dent on the BPO industry, Villanueva said the agency will vigorously undertake the training of potential call center and other BPO workers to make them more competitive, efficient and attuned to the demands of the times.
“We’re considering a review of our Training Regulations to ensure a ready pool of skilled workers so that companies will continue to do business here,” he said
TESDA has strengthened its partnership with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) in training and certifying prospective call center agents, trainers and those engaged in non-voice-based skills such as software development, animation, medical transcription, with future additions of the game development and legal transcription services.
TESDA recently released a P500-million stimulus fund to BPAP for the training aimed at creating 65,000 new jobs.
Villanueva said TESDA aims to expand its training to BPO-related and other emerging skills to minimize possible impact in case the US bill is passed.
“We will review our product mix to focus on other BPO-related skills that have equally high demand such as software development and other skills as may be defined by the industry,” he said.
“This way, we can diversify and develop more skills and spread out opportunity for employment in other emerging areas,” Villanueva added.
In its Roadmap for 2016, the BPAP said the sector will pursue development of new programs in emerging areas such as finance and accounting, human resources, banking operations, health information management and outsourcing and information technology outsourcing services.
This means, Villanueva said that training programs and new qualifications will be developed by TESDA for the new skills and competencies that will be needed by the industry in these emerging areas.
“Investments in our human resources through skills development shall remain a priority. This is intended to make our people highly skilled, globally competitive and flexible so that they can easily adapt to changing technology and work conditions. We will continue to train and retrain so they can shift to other industries or careers if necessary,” he said.
Villanueva said that TESDA in partnership with the BPO industry will offer scholarships and other assistance directed to develop skills or qualifications with high demand, and aligned with international standards.
Retooling and retraining of workers who will be displaced, if there would be any, will also be done so they can land in jobs in other sectors.
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