MANILA -- The Philippines should maintain the English proficiency of its workforce to take advantage of growing demand for the skill among business process outsourcing companies, the head of Teleperformance said Thursday.
Teleperformance will hire 4,000 to 5,000 more people until the end of the year to cater to its retail and healthcare clients in the US, according to its managing director for the Philippines, Travis Coates.
Coates said Teleperformance clients prefer "near native" proficiency when it comes to English. The Philippines is competing with BPOs in India and Latin America, he said.
"It’s not the only place in the world to do English so it’s another reason why the country needs to continue to be competitive," Coates told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of Teleperformance's newest location in Quezon City, it's nineteenth nationwide.
"The requirement for English language skill set continues to increase so the abilities and capabilities continues to increase and I wouldn’t say necessarily that we’re seeing as much supply around that specific skillset as perhaps we have in the past," he added.
At Teleperformance, a "quality team" is also tasked to monitor workers' English proficiency and retrain them if necessary, he said.
Graduates of the expanded basic education system or K-12 helped sharpen students' English language skills, he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
