SMP to increase employability of college graduates

MANILA, Philippines - To scale up educational and training programs and equip employable talent pool with industry-standard skills, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) signed a memorandum of agreement to integrate the Service Management Program (SMP) course into the curriculum of 13 state universities and colleges (SUCs).

The “Collaboration with Project Technical Experts for the Growth Area of Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing Industry” agreement was signed by BPAP president and CEO Benedict Hernandez and CHED Chairperson Dr. Patricia Licuanan in the presence of BPAP chairman Alfredo Ayala, CHED commissioners, SUC presidents, and industry officials.

“We wanted to create and share a well-designed industry-based curriculum to help in preparing the future workforce for the IT-BPO sector. Through this, we hope not only to raise the competency of the industry but to also lend a hand in developing a more qualified and knowledgeable pool of human resource,” said Ayala.

Licuanan said, “This specialized course aims to prepare students from all types of traditional courses, especially those taking up business administration and information technology, for a career in the IT-BPO and GIC industry while still in college. SMP will equip them with the competencies needed for entry-level positions and future career development. Our collaboration with BPAP will surely help in maximizing this program to its potential.”

Currently offered in universities and colleges in addition to existing courses, SMP aims to increase employability of 20,000 students and provide training to 500 teachers for SY 2013-2014. Jointly developed by the IT-BPO industry and academe, the program is designed to enhance competencies in learning ability, critical thinking, communication, service culture, and computer literacy.

An industry road map projects that the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) and global in-house centers (GIC) industry will employ 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016. SMP is the industry’s response to the growing demand for a sustainable supply of highly qualified employees.

CHED has also allocated P125 million for developing project components which includes the Train the Teachers (T3) program. “T3 will kickstart the SMP project by creating an ongoing stream of IT-knowledgeable teachers. The beauty of this agreement with CHED is that it is beneficial not only to the students but to the teachers as well as it will provide training to make it easier for them to effectively communicate the curriculum to the students,” Ayala said.