Working student
Mark, meanwhile, was enrolled with a full-load of 15 units at the UP College of Mass Communication when he worked as a customer service representative for a large American cable company over a year ago.
“There were four of us in the family studying when I decided to work. Mahirap ang buhay, [at] malaking tulong din sa pamilya ‘yung sinusuweldo ko.” (The times are hard and the salary I am receiving helps a lot.) At that time, Mark recalls that his salary peaked to over P20, 000 ($436) most of which went to paying grocery and electricity bills, apart from his “remittance” to his father.
Mark, who is now on his last year as a Journalism major, worked in a prominent call center facility in Commonwealth Ave., just a jeepney ride away from UP. Many of his officemates were also from UP; one was from the College of Social Work and Community Development, while another was from Public Administration and Governance. “I even saw a former USC [University Student Council] councilor training there,” he adds.
A year into his job, however, Mark was “practically compelled” by his supervisors to resign due to his excessive absences and habitual tardiness. He was made to choose between resigning or awaiting the decision of the company’s bosses. If the decision was to fire him, Mark would not be able to get his pro-rated monetary benefits, like performance bonus and 13th- month pay.
“Ang hirap kasi ng schedule ko. (My schedule was too heavy.) Every day after my work, I’d have to go straight to school to attend my classes. And then work ulit sa gabi,” (And then work again at night.) he explained. Mark was on a four-day work schedule every week, 11 hours every day.
Brain drain
The UP population isn’t the only academic community being drawn to call centers. With the Filipinos’ facility with the English language, the government seems adamant in maintaining its grip on this so-called “sunshine industry.” To illustrate, the past few years saw a re-orientation of the educational system towards the outsourcing industry.
The Technical Education Skills Development Authority, a government agency that provides vocational training for employment, has collaborated with outsourcing firms to provide free call center and medical transcription courses. After insistent lobbying from call center agencies, Gloria Arroyo also approved the allocation of P500 million ($10,907,504) for the “re-education” of “near-hires” – a term used to describe the 92 percent of applicants who fail to make it into call centers.
Some private schools have also instituted “call center subjects” in their curricula. Spoken English is now emphasized as never before, with some elementary schools integrating “Dynamic Education” (DynEd), a spoken English training course, into their syllabus. A part of the DynED module teaches students how to answer calls as if working the front desk of a company.
These programs are manifestations of the government’s insistence to keep the call center market flowing with a steady stream of intellectuals.
Even other support sectors, like the real estate and information and communications technology, are pitching in to provide the infrastructure to ensure the longer stay of call center facilities in the country.
Mark, on the other hand, is wary of promising not to return to his previous job. “I don’t want to go back to working in a call center, but if employment remains scarce when I graduate, I don’t think I have any other option,” he says.
True enough, for as long as the government is incapable of providing decent employment to its graduates and professionals, the academe would slowly be robbed of its most valued resources. Philippine Collegian/Posted byBulatlat.com
