I participated in a five-day BPAP-ADEPT (Advanced English Proficiency Training) FACULTY-TRAINER WORKSHOP ON POWER METHODS from May 26 to 30. It was a workshop participated in by teachers of English from the different universities in the country. The participating schools included FEU (the host university), FEU-East Asia College, CEU Manila, Makati, and Malolos, PWU, Lyceum Cavite, NCBA, San Beda College, UE Caloocan and Recto, and University of Cebu.
The workshop was sponsored by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and the Asia Pacific Center (APC). The trainers were from APC.
The workshop's goal is simple, though complicated: TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THE INDUSTRY AND THE ACADEME.
Since the event was sponsored by BPAP, definitely, they were the ones who set the goals and the agenda. When the president of BPAP and the Senior Marketing Executive (I forgot her name, sorry) spoke about the status of the BPO industry, I was quickly convinced that, indeed, there is a need to "bridge the gap between the industry and the academe." According to the president of BPAP, who also worked for Procter & Gamble for over 20 years, the Philippines currently has a share of 6% in the BPO industry in the world. He said our country competes with India which also has a good share, much higher than the Philippines', in this industry.
The trainers justified that the workshop is specifically conducted to "help" the 90 % call center applicants who don't make it to the industry because of their lack of proficiency in the English language, particularly speech and oral communication. Supposedly, the workshop aimed to address this problem so that the goal of the BPAP, which is to generate 1 million employees by 2010, will also be addressed.
There is no question that teachers of English in this country, particularly those who attended the workshop, want to help improve students' language proficiency so they can contribute not only to the BPO industry but to the country's success as well. The thing is, there were lots of questions during the workshop which were not addressed.
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SKEPTICISM WAS IN THE AIR
I wasn't sure who were more skeptic: the participants who felt that "something was missing" during the workshop or the trainers who might have felt that the participants were not cooperative enough. Both parties seemed to be skeptic of what was happening.
On the first day, it was very clear to me when one of the trainers told us that THEY ARE GOING TO SHARE WITH US WHAT THEY CALL THE POWER METHODS BECAUSE THE METHODS USED IN SCHOOL SEEM TO BE NO LONGER EFFECTIVE. They said this because, according to that trainer, the call center applicants actually lack proficiency in English despite the fact that they have finished a four-year degree in college. I got it loud and clear. On that first day, I have to admit I felt a bit awkward because they invited us to the workshop then they started to insult us. It was simple: they want to impose on their so-called Power methods because our (English teachers') method, as far as they are concerned, does not work anymore.
On the same day (first day), a teacher from another school was asking the trainer to show us a rubric being used in the call center so that we, as English teachers, would have any idea on "what the BPO industry demands." That teacher asked for that when we were told to create a rubric in assessing an applicant's communcation skills. I thought it wasn't fair for us to create a rubric on the spot because rubrics are meticulously designed. Anyway, on the succeeding days, more questions were left unanswered and more confrontation happened.
At the end of 5 days, I just felt sorry for everyone in the workshop. I felt sorry for the participants who, in general, did not really learn anything new in the supposedly comprehensive training. Most participants felt that the workshop could have been finished in two or three days. We actually had so many idle hours like extended lunch break, extended brainstorming sessions, etc. It seemed like the trainers didn't really know what to do next and how to go about things so we didn't stick to our schedule.
I felt sorry for the trainers because I have no doubt that they also prepared for it, especially James who seemed to know what he was doing. Unfortunately for James, he couldn't make any decision during the training. I thought the trainers were a complete mess (I'm sorry). They failed to "bridge the gap" through the workshop. They also failed to motivate the participants and to convince the participants that they were there to learn something new that may be applied in their universities when they go back.
I also felt sorry for the organizers. I understand that they have ambitious goals and that their goals could actually double or triple jobs for fresh graduates. I can feel that they are sincere in making the workshop work for every stakeholder's sake.
There's one thing that I was happy about: the food service at FEU was fine. And the tour I had in FEU-East Asia College is a new experience. Besides that, there's nothing worth my time at all. This is the reason I deliberately didn't perform well during the workshop. I knew I could have done well but I didn't -- simply because I wasn't delighted by the fact that I have to undergo CALL CENTER TRAINING for five days, the way call center applicants are being trained.
In the end, I have only one conclusion: The BPO industry is very promising but being a call center agent isn't interesting nor fun. It's actually a tiring and boring job. It may be attractive only to fresh graduates who are in a hurry to get a paying job. Aside from that, agents are nothing but sponges who absorb other people's mess, esp. if the agent is in the customer service department.
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