BPOs expect EBET law to help address skills issues

THE Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) law, as well as expanded internships, will help the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry address issues regarding the workforce’s skills shortcomings.

IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) Chief Operating Officer Celeste llagan said the partnership between industry and government in the upskilling and reskilling of workers has been around for some time, but 2025 will mark a milestone in terms of government funding.

“This year is quite special because the allocation of funds for the IT-BPM industry has been very clear. And we are now in the state of mobilizing our industry, so we are able to fully utilize within the year the allocation from the government,” she said.

In particular, she said that the industry received P500 million from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and P240 million from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

IBPAP Executive Director for Talent Attraction and Development Frankie Antolin said the passage of the EBET law “empowers enterprises to take advantage of and leverage government partnership and support when it comes to training and development.”

“We are very happy that through our engagements with TESDA, we are going to be able to mobilize training and development, particularly for EBET. So that is intended to be implemented for this year,” she said.

“On the other hand, we’ve already had partnerships with the DICT for several years. These are more sector-specific kinds of training programs, and we find that DICT is a natural partner when it comes to implementing and executing training around those,” she added.

She said that the industry’s partnership with the government allows it to target various job profiles.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said 20 member-companies have committed to the upskilling initiative.

Their participation involves a combined 75,273 trainees, CCAP President Haidee Enriquez said.

“For this year we have P740 million. We need to show that we can utilize that funding. Actually, our goal is to show that it is not enough,” she added.

Meanwhile, Ms. Antolin said that the industry has been negatively evaluating graduates in terms of employability for years.

“This is actually not just true for senior high school graduates, but even in the higher education graduates. We are looking at anecdotally maybe a 10-15% employability rate, and that is really quite low,” she said.

To address this, she said that the industry has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to try to embed as much of the industry and design curriculum into the education life cycle as early as possible.

“With DepEd, we got an expanded senior high work immersion program with a mandatory 80 hours currently. We have entered into an agreement with DepEd so that we can bring that up to 640 hours,” she said.

“That is practically a semester so that we can couple the training and the theoretical foundational skills building together with practical application. That is still in the works; we’re still at a pilot stage, so we’re hoping that that will impact employability at the senior high level,” she added.

She said similar initiatives are ongoing with CHED in terms of curriculum development.

For this year, she said two northern schools will run trials, while another run is expected next year.

“We see that this is going to happen in stages. There are schools that are going to very easily accommodate this kind of change. There are others that we’re going to have to pace it out with them,” she said.

“After going through the enhanced curriculum, we will assess them for employability. Because that’s really the goal, to increase employability,” she added.

Meanwhile, IBPAP expressed concern regarding the last-minute additions to the Open Access and Konektadong Pinoy bills, which have both passed on third reading in the House of Representatives and Senate.

“IBPAP is concerned about a last-minute addition to the bills during the bicameral committee discussions — a provision related to data localization,” it said.

“This was not included in earlier versions and appears to have been inserted without full consultation or clarity,” it added.

In particular, IBPAP said data localization will make it harder for companies to meet contract obligations, raise business costs, and increase data risks.

“If the aim of the new provision is to safeguard national security, IBPAP respectfully points out that the DICT’s existing Cloud First Policy already provides sufficient safeguards for sensitive government data,” it said.

“No new law is needed to address this,” it added.

“Data localization is a major policy decision that deserves careful debate, not a rushed insertion into a bill that was originally designed to expand digital access,” it said.

“We urge lawmakers to decouple this issue from the connectivity bills and ensure it is addressed with the depth, transparency, and diligence it deserves,” it added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile