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 (average hourly wage of US$2.50 for Filipino Call Center Representatives as of August 2013 compared to the minimum hourly rate of US$8.50 for Americans in the same industry), 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

The BPO industry in the Philippines has grown 46% annually since 2006. In its 2013 top 100 ranking of global outsourcing destinations, Tholons, a US-based strategic advisory firm for global outsourcing and investments, has ranked the Philippine capital Manila number 3, lifting it 1 notch to knock off India’s New Delhi from number 3 spot in 2012 to number 4 in 2013. The top spots remained unchanged, where Bangalore is first and Mumbai is second. This boom is led by demand for lower labor costs, a highly skilled and educated work force, and high proficiency in spoken English.

Philippine BPO revenues have risen steadily since 2009. In 2012 alone, BPO companies raked in $13.5 billion in revenues, which is 22 percent higher than 2011.  The Philippine BPO industry will continue its upward momentum, with annual revenues seen hitting $16 billion in 2013 as the country remains one of the world's top BPO destinations.  It is expected to further grow in the next three years with revenues reaching $25 billion by 2016 while providing direct employment to 1.3 million Filipinos, and supporting 3.2 million indirect jobs.

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.