Workers may get gov't training scholarship for call center skills

BOHOLANO workers seeking to gain a foothold by acquiring more skills in the workplace may grab the chance of a lifetime with the government's training for work scholarships. Here, a lot of local workers still fail to rise up the corporate ladder owing to being untrained with the right skills that match the need of leading industries. Anent to this issue, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is allocating 100,000 certificates of scholarship under the PGMA Training for Work Scholarships program. This also makes Boholano workers eligible to avail of such to equip them of the right skills.

The training scholarship hopes to fill the skills requirements of the flourishing business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, which operates call centers as well as industries experiencing skills shortage. In a phone interview with the local Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), agency information officers said they are now awaiting for the implementing rules and regulations to start accepting applicants to the program. They said the separate memoranda may still be at the regional offices and are due to arrive anytime this week.

Last May 1, President Arroyo initially handed over scholarship coupons to target beneficiaries in simple ceremonies at the Malacanang. The President initiated the PGMA Training for Work Scholarships Program to address the need for skills in the BPO sector and seven other industries experiencing critical shortage of skills. With this, she has committed some P500 million from the government's pump priming fund to finance the scholarship program of the 100,000 target beneficiaries.

Labor and Employment Secretary Sto. Tomas said that the scholarship is open to students and workers who are at least high school graduates and wanting to pursue careers in the BPO as call center agents, medical and legal transcriptionists, animators, and software developers. Sto. Tomas said that the program also aims to provide needed skills in aviation, agriculture, medical tourism, healthcare, services, hotels and restaurants and metals. She added that the main project partners in the implementation of the PGMA Training for Work Scholarships are the DOLE, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Job Creation (OPAJC), private sector associations and education and training institutions.

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