BPO industry, workforce gap narrows

CEBU, Philippines - Because of the strong collaboration between government and private sectors in Cebu, in pushing the growth of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) investments, recent skills assessment tests have indicated an improvement between the industry and the academe.

In a report released by the Cebu Investments and Promotions Center (CIPC), the gap between employer and the human capital suppliers (academe) has narrowed, which directly indicates the tangible results of the human capital development initiatives implemented by Cebu City.

“Cebu is working to sustain its ranking as one of the Top 10 Outsourcing locations for IT in the world. Towards this end, it is rapidly putting necessary investments in infrastructure and is continuously developing organizations, human resources and policies necessary to attain this objective,” said CIPC managing director Joel Mari S. Yu.

According to Yu, Cebu has recognized the need to achieved improved skills, among its human resource capital, that are supplied by the academe sector, and this will enable employability in target niches which are higher up the outsourcing value chain.

A good indication of the strong support from the academe, Yu mentioned is at least 11 universities in Cebu offer IT courses, assuring of appropriate skills and the interplay of human and software.

To provide skills specialist training, there are also internationally accredited software learning centers in Cebu. These include; Cisco Networking Academies, Microsoft Certified Specialist Training Centers and an Oracle Programming Academy. — (FREEMAN)