Improving Call Centers in the Philippines

The IT outsourcing industry in the Philippines is not as robust as the business process outsourcing industry. This is because it does not have a high number of IT graduates to fill the need of the market. Yet, the imperative of the industry is for IT companies to deliver IT projects from various clients from all over the world that are considered high quality. Such projects should also fit within the budget of the clients and the time frame that they specified.

There are now a lot of IT graduates from the Philippines. A lot of these IT graduates, however, tend to find jobs abroad instead of in the Philippines. As such, what the Philippines need is to strengthen the IT industry and the capabilities of prospective IT professionals.

The BPO industry, on the other hand, especially the call centers in the Philippines are still showing a steady sign of growth. There are, however, several observers who pointed out a rising shortage of quality call center agents to fill the need for skilled call center agents. There are also those who say that the quality of the English skills of the latest members of the call center workforce is declining.

The Philippines cannot afford to lose the quality of the written and spoken English skills of the members of its workforce. Otherwise, it will lose its competitive advantage in the industry and compromise its position as the destination of choice of companies exploring to outsource their business processes. Right now, there are several countries that are trying to improve their English communication skills to take advantage of the outsourcing industry. Such countries include Chile, Czech Republic, Russia, and even China.

There should be a concerted effort from the Philippine government, the education sector, and the call center industry to help develop the capabilities of professionals in the Philippines in order to become more competitive in the industry.

On the part of the government, there are now efforts to further promote the call centers in the Philippines. By participating in multilateral trade organizations and in bilateral ones, together with efforts in strengthening economic cooperation in the Asian region and elsewhere, the Philippines is helping develop the reputation of the country. Furthermore, it is able to attract more investors for the call center industry.

The English education of both young and old Filipinos is also being enhanced now by the allocation of additional budget for the teaching and learning of the English language. The teachers are also being empowered by the Department of Education so that they can refresh their English language and teach more effectively to their pupils and students.

The call center industry is also doing its share. There are now call center academies that provide training to prospective call center professionals and help them increase their chances in being hired at call centers.
Through these efforts, the call center industry will be able to sail further and fulfill its promise of more growth in the future.