The Department of Labor and Employment recently generated a roster of sought-after jobs for Filipinos in the next decade. DOLE’s recent labor market research under its “Project Jobs Fit” program became the foundation for this list of jobs. The list’s release date was on June 29, 2010.
Included in the program is the identification of sectors that require more labor in the next few years. Topping the list are agribusiness, banking and finance, cyberservices, real estate, tourism and hospitality, transportation and logistics, and the wholesale-retail industry. The cyberservices sector in particular houses the throng of Filipino call center agents, who will remain in-demand for the next ten years.
The “Project Jobs Fit” program aims to assist Filipino student as they embark on different college educational paths that will give them the opportunity to obtain their respective dream jobs. Such a program is also aimed at minimizing brain drain and to best utilize homegrown skills and intellect for local industries.
The call center industry, however, has a tough edge over other local sectors. While sectors like banking and finance, tourism and the like require a baccalaureate degree in college for applicants to land a position, Filipino call centers do not require one. Therein lay the advantage of the industry, as its loose educational requirements attract more labor than other sectors. Another advantage of the Filipino call center sector is that as long as one has sufficient experience in either inbound or outbound calls, stiff educational standards hardly matter. Most Filipino call center employees now occupy high positions, such as team leader or supervisor, even though they have not yet graduated college.
In addition to Filipino call center agents as the most in-demand workforce in the cyberservices sector, the outsourcing industry is expected to grow more with several other services opening up hundreds to thousands of positions. Search-engine optimization (SEO) is one of these outsourced services that are gaining widespread prominence in the field of Philippine BPO. Filipino call centers and other outsourcing sectors now see the growing importance of the internet in building their business reputation and attracting more clients. With SEO as tool, outsourcing firms are able to maximize the internet’s capacity to create linkages, promote their services, increase traffic on their sites and, of course, seal tons of business deals.
The current generation of Filipino youths is hopeful that the present administration will be able to provide them with job opportunities, replete with good compensation to make their lives easier. However, the “Project Jobs Fit” program should not only be a matter of choosing the appropriate college degree that would help a student land a promising career. It should also instill among students the ability to adapt to changing work conditions and environments.