Test for BPO workers ready by end 2009

MANILA, Philippines—The National Competency Assessment Tool, a standardized test for aspiring business process outsourcing practitioners, is scheduled to be piloted in several schools and universities this year.

Oscar Sañez, chief executive of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), said the test was being tweaked and should be finalized this month.

Once finalized, he said BPAP would then make recommendations as to which standard testing tools could be used to gauge the suitability of college students to work in the BPO industry.

“We’re currently calibrating the testing tool. We’re running the tests on 1,000 BPO workers. We’re exposing the testing tools to the workers because the idea is to calibrate [the tests]. This is the best way to determine which tool we’ll eventually use in the schools,” he said in an interview.

“We’ll probably finish running the tests within July. We’ll be able to make a recommendation on which standard tool to use by August. We can pilot the test in 10 schools within the year, starting with our partners in the Adept (Advanced English Proficiency Training) program,” he added.

The National Competency Assessment Tool is just one of the ways BPAP aims to strengthen the BPO industry.

Sañez earlier said the group also planned to hold more English-proficiency training, BPO investment missions and conferences, and leadership training for middle managers.

These, he added, would ensure that the country would be able to keep up with the demand for BPO workers.

For this year, he said the industry was on track to achieving its goal of generating 100,000 new jobs. –Abigail L. Ho, Philippine Daily Inquirer