BPOs still on ‘hypergrowth’; free app for better English

With the business of call centers growing at a “phenomenal” rate each year, the industry is getting more government aid to train Filipinos to speak English better.

A computer application to help Filipinos improve their English speaking skills will be available for free early next year to support the contact center industry.

“The application called Learning English Application for Pinoys (Leap) was conceptualized and developed over the last two years. We are targeting to have it available early next year,” Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo said yesterday.

He gave the keynote speech at the opening of the International Contact Center Conference and Expo at Shangri-la’s Mactan Resort and Spa.

The application, developed by the Dept. of Science and Technology (DOST), will contain 200 hours of English lessons and can be downloaded in smartphones and tablets.

The Philippines remains the no. 1 global destination for contact centers, especially in voice services, showing a trend of year-on-year growth over the past ten years which is “phenomenal”, said Benedict Hernandez, president of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).

The industry grew at an average of 18 percent last year and continues its trend of “hypergrowth” said Hernandez in his state of the industry address.

In 2012, the industry generated P8.7 billion in revenues, a leap from P7.4 billion in 2011.

It employs close to half a million Filipinos across the country.

“Based on answers from our members, we are still expecting 18 percent growth this year and we project 900,000 people in the industry who will generate $16.3 billion in earnings by 2016,” Hernandez said.

He said the CCAP will continue its partnership with the government for training and scholarship programs.

Montejo said the DOST tapped software engineers, language experts and speech recognition experts in developing the new application.

A budget of P13 million to P15 million was allocated “to help address major weaknesses of the Filipinos that have been identified,” he said.

“Actually English is important to all industries not only the contact centers,” Montejo said.

He said the DOST’s P100 million budget is geared towards enhancing the growth of industries in science and technology.

“We think that ICT/BPO (information, communication technology/business process outsource) is one industry that can help us achieve this through job creation,” Montejo said.

By 2016, Montejo said the government is targeting 1.3 million jobs in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector with 40 percent from areas outside Manila or about 520,000 employees generating P80 billion in earnings.

About 80 percent of the budget will support programs for ICT industries.

After the Leap project, Montejo said the government will develop programs for skills enhancement, creative thinking, computer literacy and services development.

“One area where we see a lot of potential is the creatives sector which includes animation. We are exploring a time sharing project for companies doing animation,” Montejo said.