BPAP to use P500M fund for faculty, trainer development

In an effort to further hone local talents, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) will be using the P500-million funding that the Department of Budget and Management has committed to the industry to implement more “train the trainer” and faculty development programs.

Gillian Joyce Virata, BPAP executive director for information and research, said the amount would be a big help to the sector’s efforts to build the country’s available talent pool, as demand for new blood was seen increasing in the coming years.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Ms. Virata said that during the past administration, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) allocated P350 million a year to the BPO sector, through BPAP, for the implementation of various training programs.

The actual amount disbursed, however, differed each year. In 2008, she said the industry had P240 million in processed training vouchers. The amount went down to P160 million in 2009 and to only P20 million last year.

“Last year we had just P20 million because the new administration was still doing its audits,” Virata explained.

This year, the BPO sector received another P20-million funding, but instead of being coursed through BPAP, the budget allocation was divided among various BPO branches and paid directly by Tesda regional offices to specific industry groups.

Recipients of the funds included the Contact Center Association of the Philippines for voice, Heathcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippine for medical transcription and healthcare BPO, Animation Council of the Philippines Inc. for animation, and Philippine Software Industry Association for software development.

Virata said the P500 million that the DBM had committed to allocate for the BPO sector would go a long way in fulfilling the BPAP’s thrust to ensure that the country would have enough qualified talents to address the future needs of the industry.

Since the promised funding was P150 million more than Tesda’s usual P350-million allocation for the industry, she said more training programs could be rolled out.

“We hope this amount will be released soon,” Virata said.

According to BPAP’s Roap Map 2011-2016, the BPO sector had the potential to post at least $20 billion in revenue by 2016 and as high as $25 billion with stronger public-private partnership.

A $20-billion industry could provide employment to as many as 900,000 individuals. A $25-billion industry, on the other hand, could give jobs to as many as 1.3 million people.

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