US$780 million needed for upskilling program says Philippines’ BPO trade body
The training needed to develop the skillsets of workers in the Philippines’ information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector will require some PHP40bn (US$780 million) of government / private sector funding over the next five years, according to the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), the industry’s trade body.
Maintaining that such a programme is essential if the sector in the industry is to keep up to speed with the latest technological innovations, Rey C. Untal, IBAP’s president and CEO, said at least 100,000 people a year need to be trained just to develop the abilities of new recruits, with the figure needing to be double that if the sector is serious about meeting its target of one million upskilled employees by 2024.
In order to deliver the required training, Untal called on the country’s universities to provide IT-BPM lessons, assist in crafting curricula related to defined industry needs, send lecturers to firms to learn best practices and help develop an online learning programme. Ultimately, Untal said, only upskilling would ensure employment in the sector continued to increase, with there now an increasing need to win new contracts to replace the roles being lost to automated services.
