Employability of offshore service sector workers in the Philippines: opportunities for upward labour mobility or dead-end jobs?

Abstract

Critical concerns have been raised about the quality of employment in the offshore service sector in developing countries, suggesting that many activities have an inherent paradox of highly educated workers performing low-skilled jobs. Based on empirical data collected in the offshore service sector in Baguio City (the Philippines), this article analyses the knowledge and skills acquisition of workers using the concepts of employability and generic skills. The article demonstrates that offshore service sector work is part of a longer-term career planning of workers and an opportunity for strengthening their employability on the global labour market. The early stage of development of the offshore service sector provides workers with opportunities for local upward labour mobility. The article argues that the sector should be looked at from an employee-based perspective that emphasizes their employability and generic skills acquisition in order to understand the longer-term benefits of the sector for developing countries.

Industry-academe linkages in the Philippines: Embedding foreign investors, capturing institutions?

“…''The contact-centre industry attracts college graduates whose training has been directed towards other highly skilled professions, and thus may have created an employment-education mismatch'' (Magtibay-Ramos et al, 2008: 42). This is referred to as a paradox (Beerepoot and Hendriks, 2013) similar to overqualified call centre workers in developed countries.…”

“…More knowledge-intensive activities require more highlyeducated individuals but so far most initiatives focus on low-end talent supply. Positive spill-overs from BPO work are suggested by literature on workers' increased employability beyond the offshore service sector based on transferable skills gained during BPO employment (Beerepoot and Hendriks, 2013;Vira and James, 2012). From the perspective of individual BPO workers in the Philippines, a focus on English communications skills can facilitate overseas labour migration or employment in the tourism industry, 7 although the move into KPO services, requiring specific skills, remains often restricted by formal training.…”

“…The higher-end back-office services are often referred to as knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). Beerepoot and Hendriks (2013), focusing on individual BPO workers' employability and skills upgrading, described two distinct routes for skill development: a lower-end route of generic and transferable skill development in routinized interactive service work, and a higher-end specialisation of occupation-specific skills in professional knowledge work.…”

“…c o m / l oc a t e / g e o f o r u m (Fernandez-Stark et al, 2011;Barrientos et al, 2011). Whereas earlier literature on offshore service workers addressed the skill development of workers during BPO employment and worker's individual career progression (Beerepoot and Hendriks, 2013;Vira and James, 2012), this study analyses the intervention of BPO firms into the education sector, changing skills development also prior to employment. It takes as point of departure the global production network (GPN) approach, traditionally focused on the level of the firm and the sector and less on workers' experiences (Coe and Hess, 2013).…”

Toward a more complete understanding of offshoring: bringing employees into the conversation

“…Rapid growth in the use of offshoring as a strategic business practice has generated considerable debate among practitioners, scholars and policy-makers (Ahmed, Hertel, & Walmsley, 2011;Beerepoot & Hendriks, 2013;Schmeisser, 2013). 1 The practice involves shifting primary responsibility for some or all of a company's work processes across national borders to either a captive subsidiary or an external, third-party vendor (Harrison & McMillan, 2006;Schmeisser, 2013).…”