Excel Asia to serve BPO staffing needs

Excel Asia Training and Development Inc. has set its main headquarters in Cebu primarily to aid the growing demand of manpower for the business process outsourcing companies.

Led by Rita Ugarte, and some Cebu-based partners, Excel Asia aims to fulfill recruitment, training and staffing needs especially for BPO and call center companies and other private corporations.

"We are fully aware of the human resource challenges the Philippines faces today. There is a limited pool of highly qualified English speaking applicants and hiring rates have gone down to as low as two percent from about five percent some five years ago," Ugarte said.

For P3 million capital investment, the group installed a training facility in Gorordo Avenue in this City, similar facilities will be formally opened in Metro Manila, she said.

"We started this facility in Cebu, because of the booming call center industry here, and no training center of this kind has supported its recruitment problem," she added.

The company already talked with several call center operators in Cebu, for a partnership deal.

According to Ugarte, the training will only take one to two weeks. Most call center firms are willing to shoulder the expenses of the training for the potential applicants.

The training center can accommodate up to 100 students, in an 8-hour a day training schedule.

"We understand that training and hiring the right people for their [call center] operations is not their core business. Our company will take advantage of this opportunity," she said.

Excel Asia will recruit potential call center applicants, and will match them with call center clients, after an extensive training is provided for.

"We invest for an intensive and highly effective training program for our chosen applicants. We believe these applicants will make excellent employees after being given proper training," Ugarte said who worked for a call center company in Manila for years.

"Our training program was designed by a call center training professional who has spearheaded and developed internal training programs for multiple call center companies in the Philippines," she added.

Cebu-based businessman Mikel Ugarte, the company's president, whose business is into pawnshop and furniture export has entered into Human Resource industry business for the first time, as he sees the huge business potential in it.

The company aims at supplying its clients with the "perfect match" through its tried and tested four step qualification process, which include; rigid screening, interviews and qualification assessments; thorough background, character, and reference checks; quality training; and on-the-job quality assessment.