One of my most memorable trip was when we traveled to Tarlac to teach little children. It’s so heartwarming when we see them use the words we taught for their normal conversation like “Good Morning!” and “Thank you”. Similar to what we have done in the past, Globe Telecom thought of teaching English easily and conveniently too as they introduces its new English Proficiency and Training Hotline during the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain where Globe is one of the exhibitors.
This move is in support of the mEducation initiative of GSM Association which brought together the Department of Education (DepEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and other industry players to have education opportunities for OSY nationwide.
The Globe Hotline is an Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) that could help out-of-school youth build their English language foundation without the requirement for formal schooling so that they can break into the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, a booming and constantly growing sector that contributes more than USD 10 Billion to the Philippine Gross Domestic Product. This is now being pilot-tested at Bagosphere, a social enterprise based in Bago City, Negros Occidental funded by Kickstart Ventures, a startup incubator and investment firm of Globe.
Bagosphere trains OSY to get jobs in the BPO industry. Once the Globe Hotline students pass the required English fundamentals, they can join Bagosphere’s two-month BPO training program. Bagosphere aims 90% of its graduates to be employed in the first week of program completion.
Globe President and CEO Ernest L. Cu with Anne Bouverot, Director General and Member of the Board of GSMA at the Globe m-Education booth, GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain
“We are leveraging on our expertise in communications and information technology to bring skills and training to the underprivileged sector of society so that they can also have a chance to a brighter future. The key task now is to monitor success of the Globe Hotline solution both in usage and effectiveness in improving the knowledge of our out-of-school youth. Later phases of the project will include expansion of lessons and modules, and usage propagation in the rural areas,” said Ernest Cu, Globe President and CEO.
There are 4.2 million OSY in the Philippines right now who lack resources, basic skills, and opportunities to improve their standard of living. This also happens even in Manila! But in rural areas particularly, schools usually are too far away and with no internet connectivity, leaving children and young adults with little or no access to online education or independent learning. As a result, OSYs find themselves staying below the poverty line and working in jobs offering less than the minimum wage.
Once the Globe Hotline becomes available commercially, Globe mobile service customers can gain convenient access to English training, acquire English fundamentals, and increase their employment. They would only need to have a mobile phone and a cellular service.
For first time callers, they will undergo a 10 question diagnostic pre-test to assess their skills. After which, they will proceed to English training which has four lessons that make up the fundamentals for English proficiency such as parts of speech, parts of a sentence, listening and comprehension, and pronunciation. Each lesson has a lecture, practice module, and a test, to check the student’s mastery of the lesson.
Last Updated on 9 years by Carizza
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