BPAP to institute licensure exams for O&O industry

The Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) announced that they will be requiring a licensure test for graduates who would like to enter the offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) industry.

In an interview, BPAP president Oscar Sanez said the examination will be similar to the achievement test taken by incoming college students.

“Everybody will have a score. Now the company would have to decide on who to hire depending on the score that the applicant gets,” Sanez said.

According to him, the new standard will help firms screen applicants better. “This will help us recruit only those who are qualified,” he explained.

For Sanez, this would also help cut down the cost of the firms because they will not be interviewing people who are not qualified.

Sanez said nobody will fail the test but there will be a score. “Some firms would say that they will only interview those who got a score of 90 and above and that is entirely up to them,” he said.

“This will raise the competency standard,” he stressed.

The test, Sanez said, will be held once a year. The first test is expected to be administered early next year.

Late last year, BPAP launched the information and communication technology roadmap that stated a strategic plan that will attract and direct investments within the sector.

The roadmap detailed the application of emerging ICT, through workshop, lecture series and trainings in each of the country’s administrative regions.

Based on the roadmap, the O&O industry is expected to generate one million jobs by 2010.

The BPO sector is expected to bring in $7 billion in revenues this year up from the $5 billion it posted last year.

Sanez said all sectors of the BPO are seen to grow by 40 percent this year. BPO sectors include game development, voice and medical transcription.

For the Philippines, the biggest sector remains to be the voice which makes up 65 percent of the industry.

Sanez said for this year, their strategy is to target the western market namely the US, Europe and Australia.

“We have to make our presence felt because we have a very small presence in these markets,” Sanez explained.