Youths in Mindanao cash in on call center boom

Mindanao Bureau
Inquirer.net

DAVAO CITY -- Jade Suaybaguio wants to send his sick mother to the hospital, but this is just wishful thinking for a 19-year-old son of a laborer.

His father had stopped supporting the family, leaving the responsibility to him and his elder sister, who, unfortunately, lost her job recently.

Jade no longer goes to college because no one was financially assisting him. He now works as a liaison officer for the employees’ cooperative of Tagum City government and earns P100 daily.

Sam (not his real name), 27, on the other hand, has not been regularly employed for almost a year now. The son of a carpenter, he supports himself and his family from the small fees he gets doing corporate shows and community events.

The difficulty of being a free-lancer is that events do not happen regularly, forcing him to even try writing thesis and other research works for high school and college students, he said.

Both Jade and Sam now see a glimmer of hope when they joined the Training for Work Scholarship Program, a multimillion-peso skills development initiative of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). They enrolled at the Academia de Davao Inc. to learn the basics of the call center industry.

Job prospects

The two are among some 2,000 people from Southern Mindanao who are benefiting from the program. Graduation will give them opportunities to find jobs in the booming call center industry, like the 1,600 people from the region who have already become call center agents.

That life is difficult is something that Jade avoids to think, as this will only make things worse for him and his younger siblings. He said he would rather see the brighter side of his family’s condition and the opportunities coming his way.

Sam has availed himself of a government scholarship program when he enrolled.

Working during the day, Jade is finishing the 100-hour course for call center agents at the school through night classes.

Jade, who took up an agricultural engineering course at the state-run University of Southern Philippines in Tagum, was described by his call center mentor, Lorna Rasay, as intelligent.

During a job fair for call center agent aspirants in Tagum last week, Jade passed the interview given by Link2Support, a progressive business outsourcing company.

“Well, I’m really happy. Things are turning really well for me and my family. I learned that I was able to pass the interview level and that alone is already a huge thing for me,” he told the Inquirer by phone.

TESDA scholarship

Getting the scholarship program from TESDA “is very important for me,” Jade said.

“Remember that I have to stop going to school because nobody was supporting me. This one is a major opportunity opening doors for more opportunities for me.”

Mafel Negrido-Gamale, information officer of TESDA-Southern Mindanao, said the program, especially the one for call center agents, had attracted a lot of undergraduate students and job seekers.

“Another factor, of course, is the fact that one applicant can easily pass the exam given to aspiring individuals. Another is the fact that the training is for free,” Gamale said.

The program was launched here in May last year with a nationwide budget of P1.06 billion. Next year, another P1 billion will be allocated to benefit those enrolling as welders, medical and legal transcriptionists, animators and software developers, and those who want to be in the household services, hotel and restaurant management and other critical skills.

‘Employables’

Gamale said the beneficiaries were labeled as “employables” and “near-hires” or those who possess the required technical skills and competencies.

“Near-hires and employables are the top priorities as they need only enhancement of certain competencies to be given assurance of employment after choosing their desired finishing courses,” she said.

TESDA data showed that the employment rate among those who entered the Work for Scholarship Program, especially in the call center sector, was 23.3 percent for Compostela Valley, 25.2 percent for Davao del Norte, 13.1 percent for Davao Oriental, and 20.6 percent for Davao del Sur, which includes Davao City.

Prospects for skilled workers, like call center agents, are bright and the demand is expected to rise each year, Gamale said.

In 2006, Department of Trade and Industry records indicated that the region needed at least 1,000 call center agents, 90 medical transcriptionists, more than 3,000 animators and 88 software developers.