DOST to launch online English training module

CEBU, Philippines - Recognizing the ability of the Business Process Management (BPM) and Information Technology in generating more jobs for Filipinos, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) announced to roll out a free online application to improve English proficiency.

DOST chief Mario Montejo made this promise yesterday at the opening of the three-day 9th International Contact Center Conference and Expo (ICCCE) in response to the industry's problems on manpower shortage.

Montejo announced that the Learning English Applications for Pinoys (LEAP), which allows anybody to download a 200-hour English training module that will equip Filipinos seeking for jobs, specifically in the countryside areas to get high paying jobs in the contact center sector.

In an interview with Montejo yesterday, he said that the distribution of job opportunity in the service sector particularly in the fast growing outsourcing industry will now embrace even those who do not attend college education, but are fluent in English.

The Aquino administration is aiming to hit 1.3 million jobs from IT/BPM sector by 2016, about 40 percent of which will be made available in the countryside or the identified first wave cities in the Philippines like Cebu.

"We are bullish about the LEAP program, this is seen to pull up our target's realization in the next three years," Montejo said.

The Commission of  Technology and Communication (ICT) , which is under the DOST has a total of P100 million, bigger chunk of the budget goes to skills development program in partnership with other government agencies like the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), as well as industry players and the academe.

Montejo said the roll out of LEAP is set next year and this will further arm the Filipinos' competitive advantage in the English language, at the same time giving opportunity to the countryside-based job seekers to take part of the high paying job market.

The P13 million LEAP project is a standalone, computer-based training program with lessons and exercises to help users improve their English language skills.

The software was developed through the joint efforts of the UPD College of Engineering’s EEEI, DCS, the College of Arts and Letters’ Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts.

It is under the DOST-funded project entitled Interdisciplinary Signal Processing for Pinoys (ISIP) Project 7: Development of an English Language Training Software for Call Centers.

Meanwhile, the call center stakeholders in the Philippines led by Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) identified the issue on hiring qualified English proficient manpower as one of the top challenges in the industry.

"Even with this hyper growth trend that the Philippine contact center industry is experiencing, hiring more quality talent remain a top issue," CCAP president Benedict Hernandez said yesterday in front of the over 800 conference delegates.

CCAP targets that the industry will employ some 900 thousand BPO workers by 2016 generating revenues of up to US$16.3billion, this is slightly below the government's projection of 900 thousand given at the same time frame. — (FREEMAN)