IT-BPOs in need of accountants, nurses, engineers

(Manila, Philippines, May 30, 2012) – Jojo Reyes, now Area Vice President of the Philippine operations of Stream Global Services, a position he has held since 2009, rose from the ranks as an agent of eTelecare in 2001. His is just one of countless success stories in the Philippine IT-BPO industry. This fast-growing industry, according to Benedict C. Hernandez, himself a product of the industry and now President and CEO, of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) is one which continues to provide the best chance for high-potential individuals to realize their full potential.

New graduates and professionals who want to find rewarding careers overseas need not look very far. Fast-track global careers are available today in this industry. BPAP offers over a hundred thousand IT-BPO jobs for financial analysts, engineers, accountants, doctors and nurses, artists, business graduates, and many other professionals through the career portal “Work Abroad. Live Here www.workaboardlivehere.com.”

Early this April, BPAP launched the career portal to increase awareness of global career opportunities in the IT-BPO industry among new graduates and parents. According to BPAP senior executive director Gillian Virata, many are unaware that IT-BPO spans more than 20 different functional and vertical segments, employs 640,000 Filipinos, and generated revenues of US$11 billion last year.

“We have jobs in IT, software development, customer service, finance and accounting, health care, legal, creative services, and engineering,” she said. “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.”

To reach out to potential industry employees, BPAP set up a Facebook page and Twitter account, which helped drive traffic to the site. In a little over a month, the portal’s Facebook page gained over 2,000 fans. “We’ve received a very positive response from online jobseekers. Many of them are actively seeking jobs relevant to a wide range of disciplines,” Hernandez said.

“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 and the creation of the ‘Work Abroad. Live Here.’ portal is just one piece of a larger campaign to acquaint graduates and professionals who are considering a career shift with opportunities in the IT-BPO industry.”

In a sign indicating the importance of IT-BPO to the Philippine economy and job generation, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a P27.3 million grant to support skills enhancement for the industry. The ADB funding will be allocated to training programs for college students and professors. It is expected to benefit at least 900 faculty members and 3,000 college-level students from selected participating institutions.

“The Philippines has been the global leader in providing customer relationship management (CRM) voice services since 2010. Now, non-voice services are rapidly expanding. 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 at least 13 certification, training, and other HR development programs in place.

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