BPO-IT sector needs 50,000 middle managers by 2016

INFORMATION Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are calling on the academe to improve the skills of graduates so they can qualify for middle-management positions.

“By 2016 we will need to hire about 50,000 mid-level managers. Can we provide that?” asked Monchito Ibrahim, Commissioner of Cyber Services Group, during the ICT and BPO Conference yesterday at the Radisson Blu Hotel

With Cebu gaining the 9th spot in Tholon’s global survey of Top 10 Emerged Outsourcing Destinations, locators are expecting more from it.

To meet such demands, the workforce has to be strengthened by improving fundamental skills of Cebu’s graduates to increase their employability.

Wilson Ng, chief executive officer of Ng Khai Development Corp., said programs were already developed to train talents for entry-level positions.

Ng said now would be the time to coordinate with the academe to produce middle-management personnel, who would have globally competitive mindsets and can handle more complex problems.

He cited instances when the company had to hire from Manila people with computer programming skills because these were not found in Cebu. He observed that Cebu’s graduates lacked skills in business management and business processes.

Mitch Locsin, vice president of Philippine Long Distrance Telephone Co. for corporate business, said that universities with IT courses should upgrade their curricula to include topics on more advanced software used in top industries such as AutoCAD and Java 2 Enterprise Edition.

BPO companies also suggested that training should not only focus on developing an accent but also on ways to improve fluency and client-customer connections.

The IT-BPO stakeholders also agreed that key players in both industry and academe work together to position Cebu as a global IT-BPO competitor.

“The only way we can find the right people is by supporting the academe,” said Dennis Tagamolila of Aspire Aegis. /Correspondent Patricia Andrea
Pateña