Training company opens Bacolod office

MANILA, Philippines - A training company focused on addressing the human resource requirements of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is expanding in cities outside Metro Manila where other BPOs are also located. ExcelAsia Training and Development Inc., a local company, opened early this month an office in Bacolod City in the Visayas region. Another office is scheduled to be open in Baguio City in Northern Luzon later this year with the expansion of its site in Cebu City, also in the Visayas. ExcelAsia President Rita Trillo-Ugarte said the new Bacolod site will serve as one of their chief offices strategically situated within the southern region of the country. ExcelAsia currently has training and recruitment operations in Cebu, Makati City and Alabang. The company has earlier announced its intentions to open more sites in cities outside Metro Manila to be near their clients. The government and the BPO industry have identified so-called next wave cities, most of which are cities outside Metro Manila, which can be alternative or expansion sites of BPOs in saturated Metro Manila. Bacolod and Baguio have been identified as such cities. “To provide for crucial ramp-ups happening in our BPO clients, ExcelAsia has positioned itself to be within our clients’ reach," Trillo-Ugarte said in a statement. “Our expansion plan is also our way of bringing more jobs to Filipinos who wish to start their career in this industry." Among the BPOs which have operations in Bacolod are TeleTech and Convergys, some of ExcelAsia’s clients. The Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) earlier said that 45 percent of their members have operations outside the main central business districts of Makati City and Ortigas in Pasig City. CCAP identified TeleTech and Convergys who were among its members who are in most locations outside Makati and Ortigas. As an accredited training provider of the government’s Training for Work scholarship Program, ExcelAsia trains so-called near hires for free to improve on some proficiencies before they can be absorbed by the industry. Near-hires are applicants who require remedial training to qualify for employment. For the call center industry, the basic proficiency they require is English language. The government has allotted P350 million to further train some 70,000 near-hires. “With a hiring rate of 80% after training, ExcelAsia brings its free training service to Bacolod to leverage call center skills among its potential hires," the statement added. Since 2006, ExcelAsia has provided training services for 4,000 call center agent-beneficiaries of a government scholarship program for the outsourcing industry. – Veronica C. Silva, GMANews.TV