Test Results Reveal Philippines Ahead in Language Skills over India
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The business process outsourcing race among destination countries is a fierce competition that has been predominantly lead by South Asian country, India. The Philippines however, has been holding its own against India, emerging as a power player in the BPO outsourcing space.
Last month on the 26th of July, results of Pearson Talent Assessment’s Versant English proficiency tests revealed that the Philippines is emerging ahead of India. Results of the exams revealed that the Philippines is currently number one in terms of English proficiency with a score of 61.84, followed by Latin America and East Europe with a score of 58, and at third place, India with a score of 55.62.
Commenting on the results, Sushil Eapen, Managing Director of Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment said, “It’s only Korea and China that we [India] beat in the test.”
“Filipinos and Latin Americans are closer to American culture because of historical reasons. Also in order to cash in on the BPO boom, the Filipino government has made an excellent effort in making English education compulsory,” said S. Nagaraj, Founder and Chief People Officer of 24/7 Customer.
Indian BPO’s however, are unperturbed with the results of the survey, much like what was pointed out in a PriceWaterHouseCoopers report on the 7th of January of this year, on the apparent unawareness of Indian providers to mounting competition from other countries. Mr S. Nagaraj had pointed out, in defense to India that English fluency is only a single metric for measuring efficiency; although he does add that it will have to be determined further if proficiency will translate into better customer satisfaction.
The Philippines however, has long cited English proficiency as one of the key advantages in choosing to outsource to the country, highlighting close historical and cultural ties with America. As a former US colony, the use of English is common in the country and has lead to the ready acceptance and influence of American culture. An accent neutral workforce has made it a popular choice for call centers as well.
As the site of several different BPO subsidiaries such as Accenture (NYSE:ACN), Xerox’s (NYSE:XRX) ACS, and Teletech (NASDAQ:TTEC), the country has seen significant headway in terms of strengthening it’s foothold in the outsourcing industry. On the 16th of July, company Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG) announced plans to expand operations and hire 3,600 additional workers in the Philippines throughout its 12 contact center facilities in the country. Meanwhile on the 5th of August, BPO Company Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) announced its own plans to hire 600 more people for its new facility in the country.
With this significant success for the Philippines, India may just get a run for their money.
Author: Audrey B.
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Tags: east europe, english proficiency test, India, latin america, pearson, philippines
August 9th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Great article! I agree, Philippines always ahead of India when it comes to English communication skills…
August 11th, 2010 at 9:41 am
There’s no need to argue on this one. It has been proven that Filipinos are more proficient in English than other Asian countries.
August 29th, 2010 at 1:23 am
There is also a strong degree of integrity. As a former importer of home furnishings and veteran of travel to many far eastern countries, I feel that my dealings with Filipinos was always at a higher level of trust.
Bob Levin
September 14th, 2010 at 7:54 am
Very well said. Filipino workers are highly proficient in both written and oral English that alleviates communication barriers as one of the many dilemmas in outsourcing industry.
October 15th, 2010 at 1:59 am
It is high time that India take care of its own people and stop taking American jobs. India needs to keep its ‘best and brightest’ (as this study proves, NOT) people in their own country to clean up their infrastructures and create and innovate their own technologies.
All of my work experiences with Filipinos have been positive as they possess integrity and have high moral standards unlike Indians.
October 27th, 2010 at 7:43 am
Philippines is really GREAT than others…
Outsourcing involving the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider.In this sense, two organizations may enter a contractual agreement involving an exchange of services and payments. Of recent concern is the ability of businesses to outsource to suppliers outside the nation, sometimes referred to as offshoring or offshore outsourcing. For more details you can visit the website softwaredevelopmentoutsourcing(dot)org and services-outsourcing(dot)org
December 1st, 2011 at 4:02 pm
It’s understandable why Philippines is emerging as a power player in the BPO outsourcing because English language has been the medium of teachings in schools from elementary up to college.