The Department of Science and Technology is ready to make ICT as enabling tool to help expand and sustain the burgeoning business process outsourcing industry.
“We believe DOST has the mandate and the knowledge resources to raise the number of BPO workforce in a significant way”, DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo said.
Montejo dispelled fears that ICT will take a backseat in government development priorities following the transfer to DOST of the former Commission on Information and Communication Technology and renamed it as ICT office.
He assured leaders of the Business Processing Association Philippines in a meeting July 5 that EO 47 creating the Information and Communications Technology Office or ICTO, will result to “leaner, meaner planning and management” of government ICT resources to enhance e-governance and industry growth.
He cited the ongoing joint development program with the University of the Philippines on a software that can help aspiring BPO workers to polish up on their accents right in the comfort of their homes.
The $15-billion BPO industry directly employs about 600,000 Filipinos. It is still expanding. But lack of qualified people threatens its growth. Only 7 percent of applicants reportedly are accepted. One of the main reasons for the high attrition rate is flawed diction, an earlier DOST report said.
“The English Proficiency Training (EPT) Software can boost the still growing BPO industry with a large pool of aspiring BPO workers”, he added..
Experts in electronics and communications, and English teaching at the University of the Philippines in Diliman are working on the EPT software. It is being designed in such a way that a prospective BPO worker can go through self-training to correct diction or accent until he gets it right.
“We believe that technology intervention will play a big role in the overall strategy to develop globally competitive manpower and help increase the BPO acceptance rate from the current level”, DOST spokesperson Raymund E. Liboro added.
EO 47 essentially harmonizes government ICT policies, programs, and resources that tended to overlap and drag desired development momentum into higher value added services and products, he added.
“We assure the public especially the IT-BPO industry that the new ICTO provides us the path to a leaner and more efficient ICT regime that’s committed to transparent and reliable e-governance system and industry growth”, Liboro explained.
S&T Media Service
