Scholarships for BPO skills of OFW Dependents Brings Hope for Displaced Workers

In a recent visit by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to Davao City last February 19, 2009, Davaoenos welcomed the good news that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) has continued to offer scholarships for skills training for OFW’s dependents. The scholarship called, “Skills-for-Employment Scholarship Program (SESP)” enables a qualified applicant to avail of either a one-year or a six-month technical vocational course with financial assistance of P14,500.00 paid directly to the training provider. OWWA beneficiaries, to include the spouse of a married OFW, children not older than 21 years old, or a sibling not older than 21 years of a single OFW, may now qualify for application to the SESP.

While the OWWA scholarship may be used for any technical training program, the ICT & IT-BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry of Davao City through TADI (Transcription Alliance of Davao, Inc.) has emphasized the need for qualified transcription manpower as the demand for trained transcribers continues to rise. The 2008 projection for number of transcription jobs is seen to grow by at least 35% over previous year.

Since 2007, MTC Academy, a transcription training service provider, has trained and graduated 8 number of OWWA scholars. Many of these scholars have been extended job placement assistance and have been deployed in various transcription service companies operating of Davao City. Some OWWA scholar/graduates have also successfully transitioned to become home-based transcription service providers. MTC Academy will continue to accept OWWA-SESP scholars for training in business, legal or medical transcriptions.

Now, more than ever, there is a pressing need for the workforce to build BPO-related skills to cope with the projected robust growth of the non-voice sector (transcriptions, data entry, web & graphics development and animation). With the increasing number of displaced OFW workers, the IT-BPO industry is seen as a bright spot that can cushion the impact of the global crisis to the Philippine economy.

5.66 Billion of PGSP Subsidy in 2009 Up for Grabs for Davaoeños

Since 2006 the government has aggressively pursued the goal of 1 Million jobs by 2010 through the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP). For the year 2009, a total of 809,800 scholarship slots are up for grabs under the PGSP or the Pangulong Gloria Scholarship Program administered by the Technical Educational Skills and Development Authority (TESDA). The announcement was made by Regional Director Elmer K. Talavera during a meeting with technical vocational schools last February 9, 2009 at the Korea-Philippines Training Center in Buhisan, Tibungco, Davao City.

RD Talavera also mentioned that Davao del Sur including Davao City will be awarding a total of 14,000 scholarships. "The scholar is also given a daily allowance of P60 to cover for transportation and food while in attendance to the program," Talavera said.

Included in the TESDA list of programs which can qualify under the PGSP program is the Finishing Course in Medical Transcription NCII (160 hours) and Finishing Course in Legal Transcription NCII (160 hours). Since 2006, MTC Academy, a transcription training provider has accepted to its transcription training program over 100 TESDA scholars. The visually impaired (VIs) are among the recipients of the scholarship and several graduates are now working with local transcription companies in Davao City.

The IT-BPO industry in Davao City through its prime mover, ICT Davao Inc. welcomes the PGSP implementation as it gears up to encourage broad participation for BPO careers which is seen to grow by 35% in 2008. BPO employment is expected to contribute positively to improving the quality of life among Davaoenos as more ICT and IT-BPO investments is expected to flow into the City especially after the highly successful participation in the e-Services, an annual ICT event, where the Davao delegation sat in numerous business matching meetings.

Be an accomplished Business Transcriber or Virtual Secretary in 3 weeks

Every company that is registered with the stock market has to stick to the condition of conducting quarterly meetings of their businesses thereby updating their investors on their level of business performance. As these meetings move ahead, a coordinator has to capture the meeting, store it in the form of an audio file, and get it converted to text by a transcriptionist. The transcriptionist listens to the audio file, modifies it to text and sends it back to the customer in text format.

Business transcription is all about transforming a recorded audio file into a verbatim transcript for companies across industrial domains. Global business owners want to focus their energies on their primary business and not on routine tasks of documenting, filing, mailing correspondences and other forms of administrative work. The demand for low cost administrative assistance by many start-up companies looking to save on overhead has evolved the business transcription service to expand and now include virtual secretarial duties (aka virtual assistants-VA) as they increasingly serve to fulfill other office administrative duties without the need for a physical presence in the employer’s home country.

With the availability of high-speed satellite links, it is now entirely possible to provide this service from the Philippines to a client-employer across the globe. The best part about a career in business transcription is that the training required to become a competent BT or VA takes only 3 weeks provided the student-applicant possess basic entry-level skills to gain admission into MTC’s General Transcription 1 (GT1) program. But even without the basic entry level skill, pre-requisite courses that include touch typing, computer operations, listening for accents, English proficiency and familiarity with transcription technology are now available.

Start your Medical Transcription Career NOW with MTC’s 16-week Program

Davao City’s transcription companies continue to enjoy increasing demand for medical transcriptions from global clients and transcription partners for data documentation and audio files conversion despite the US recession. In the last 4 months of 2008, MTC Academy in Davao City has received a succession of requests from its local partners for trained transcribers from its roster of graduates to fill the manpower requirements of transcription companies ramping up their production to meet increasing demand.

The more adept MTC students found themselves hired even before graduation from MT programs. An increasing number of graduates also found themselves hired within 1-2 weeks from graduation. Others have passed employer interviews and are simply completing their on-the-job training prior to be able to start work. This employment trend is projected to continue through 2009 as the demand for medical transcription increase and MTs begin to multi-task as a business or legal transcriptionists.

To meet this surge for human resource, MTC Academy at E. Quirino Avenue (082-222682) has given much effort to curriculum innovation and is set to launch program tracks that build transcription skills at the intermediate and advance levels for General, Legal and Medical transcriptions. The tracks are so designed to enable a beginner-student to primarily build basic skill sets such a keyboarding, computer operations, listening for accents, English proficiency and familiarity with transcription technology at the BASIC or pre-requisite level prior to gaining entry to the intermediate or advance levels.

Using the revolving curriculum for most of its programs allowing classes to start every month, MTC Academy has also restructured its MT program costs thus enhancing the value for money for all of its courses. This innovation has brought about a reduction in tuition fees ranging from 30-40% it medical transcription program.