By Anna Valmero
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA—Jojo Reyes is among the living examples of successful executives in the local business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Reyes rose from the ranks as an agent to become the area vice president of the Philippine operations of Stream Global Services
The fast growing industry offers opportunities for high-potential individuals to realize their full potential, said Benedict Hernandez, president of Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), himself a product of the industry.
To educate more job seekers about the potential to find rewarding careers in BPO, BPAP launched an intensified campaign, including the launch of the career portal “Work Abroad. Live Here (http://workabroadlivehere.com/).”
The website lists over a hundred thousand IT-BPO jobs for financial analysts, engineers, accountants, doctors and nurses, artists, and business graduates.
Early this April, BPAP launched the portal to increase awareness of global career opportunities in the IT-BPO industry among new graduates and parents.
Many remain unaware that IT-BPO spans more than 20 different functional and vertical segments, employs 640,000 Filipinos, and generated revenues of $11 billion last year, said BPAP senior executive director Gillian Virata.
“New graduates and established professionals don’t have to go abroad for international, well-paying jobs,” she said. Our objective is to increase visibility of the industry here, and the opportunities it offers, so that Filipinos know about and how to find these great jobs,” said Virata.
To reach out to potential industry employees, BPAP tapped social media and set up a Facebook page and Twitter account to drive traffic to the site.
In just a month, the portal’s Facebook page gained over 2,000 fans, an indication of a positive response from online jobseekers.
“We are doing this campaign to address a potential talent gap that could impact growth of IT-BPO. There are a lot of amazing opportunities within the industry,” said Hernandez.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a P27.3 million grant to support skills enhancement for the industry, particularly in training 3,000 college students and 900 professors nationwide.
“This year, our goal is to generate 120,000 jobs to attain our goal of employing 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016. With the support from our government and the other institutions, we expect to meet that goal,” Hernandez said.
Currently, BPAP has 13 certification, training, and other HR development programs in place.
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