Investing for good contact center readiness at Tuloy Foundation

MANILA, Philippines - In 1993, Fr. Marciano “Rocky” Evangelista of the Salesians of Don Bosco saw the need for a haven where street dwellers and abandoned children in Manila could be loved and cared for. He wanted them spared from a life of crime and an uncertain future, and put up Tuloy Foundation.

Besides caring for the abandoned, Fr. Evangelista also believed in developing their potentials and equipping them for life skills that will be useful in securing their future, and established the Tuloy sa Don Bosco School.

The school affords residents and non-residents of the foundation the opportunity to study TESDA-certified courses like dressmaking, computer technology, and culinary services, among others. The courses are their ticket to a better life, far and away from the darkness of their past.

Last year, Tuloy Foundation partnered with Capital One Philippines Support Service Corp. (COPSSC) to introduce its latest program – a nine-month TESDA-certified course on contact center training that teaches students key competencies required for an entry-level position in the highly in-demand BPO and other service industries. The program involves six months of highly intensive classroom training covering topics such as English, ESL, computer basics, fundamentals of customer service, and even financial literacy.

“Business process outsourcing, being one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, has to be taught to students who want to have jobs in the contact center industry. We discussed with Tuloy Foundation our plan to establish a contact center facility in their area, the foundation said yes, and that’s how the partnership started,” COPSSC head of operations Tom McCormick said.

The contact center training program initially started with 15 students comprising Tuloy Foundation residents and non-residents, and of the first batch, nine of them were eventually hired at Capital One in Alabang.

MJ Verdadero, one of the recently hired BPO agents at Capital One, shared how the program helped her to have a better life.

“I was not fluent in the English language when I entered the program, but they trained us hard to be really good at it,” she said.

It wasn’t the biggest challenge, however.

“Because the program runs daily, my biggest challenge was financial support. There were times I would go with only transportation fare in my pocket, and then I would ask my friends to share their food. Sometimes I would also walk the distance from Moonwalk to Cavite just to be able to attend the training. Personally, I didn’t think that not having money was an excuse to be absent from class,” she added.

Precilla Villota shared MJ’s sentiment. The two spent time togeher at Tuloy Foundation in the last two years.

“I really took the courage and pursued the program despite all financial and emotional challenges. Everyone in my family thought I’d find work since I already finished a two-year course, but I saw the program as something that would not only boost my confidence, but also my career prospects. Mahirap lumaban kapag wala kang four-year course, kaya dapat gawin mo ang lahat para magkaroon ka ng niche,” she stressed.

Jerome Manansala, also a graduate of COPSSC’s program, said the program helped him understand that being a BPO agent is more than just taking calls.

“Capital One’s contact center program made us understand that it takes more than answering calls to become a BPO agent, in a financial company at that. It made us appreciate what BPO agents do to help other people through assisting them in their needs,” he said.

Quizzed about plans to expand the program, McCormick said that they are willing to share resources to those who are willing to replicate the program.

“We believe that the contact center training program should be replicated by other BPO companies in the country, especially because there is really a high demand for highly-qualified and extensively-trained people. We are more than willing to share our learning materials to others so other people would also benefit from it,” he said.

According to McCormick, Capital One associates devote their time to train students of the program as part of the company’s philosophy of “Investing for Good”.