Education

With more than 2 million high school graduates yearly, the Philippines has a stable source of manpower. The country also maintains a literacy rate of more than 95%.

The Philippine Educational system continues to churn out graduates which can potentially supply the demand of the industry. For instance, there are 2.4 million Filipinos presently enrolled in College/University education. Of this figure, 557 thousand is related to business administration, 260 thousand to math and computer related, and 352 thousand to engineering related courses. Moreover, there are also 319 thousand College students enrolled in medical and allied courses.

A survey by Kelly Services, Inc. based in Michigan, showed that India is no longer the first choice of U.S. companies looking to setup their offshore backroom operations. The study also cited companies eyeing the Philippines as the better site due to quality. Filipinos enjoy a comparative advantage over American workers since (1) labor costs in the Philippines are a fraction of US labor costs (minimum wage of approximate $7 per day as of May 2006), and (2) most BPO workers in the Philippines are college graduates. Many overseas labor outsource entities also prefer Filipinos over Indians when it comes to customer support and customer interaction due to Filipinos' relative ease and familiarity with American culture and US slang.

Employment

Business Process Outsourcing or BPO is an emerging industry in the Philippines. This industry is regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The BPO boom is led by demand for offshore call centers. It is estimated that 112,000 people were working in call centers in the Philippines in 2005, bringing in revenues of US$1.12 billion for the year. This is a sharp increase from 2000 when call centers employed 2,400 people and earned US$24 million. Overall, Philippine BPO is forecasted to earn US$13 billion by the year 2010.

On a base line scenario, the BPO industry will need at the least a yearly additional of 45,000 qualified personnel over the next few years.

Ensuring a stable supply of quality manpower will make the local call center business a continuing attractive proposition. In order to this, what is needed is to raise the probability that the College graduate can be hired, and that means raising up the acceptance rate or hiring rate, currently at around 25%. This can be done if CITE Asia Pacific will offer free, high quality supplementary IT education. Assuming that the acceptance rate can be raised to 40% with a CITE Asia Pacific education, the industry will have a steady supply of college graduates for call centers and other outsourcing services at around 80 thousand additions per year.