On 9 November, Boldr launched consecutive partnerships with two digital skills institutions in the Philippines. While this has previously proven to be an effective approach to skills creation, it is fast becoming a powerful way to drive systemic change.
It’s clear that nothing can deter the digitization trend of the modern workplace, especially since 70% of businesses chose to increase or maintain digital transformation even in the midst of a pandemic. As a result, digital skills have become an entry-level requirement when considering new team members. By partnering with digital training centers, businesses not only contribute to digital transformation at an early stage, but also create opportunities where there were none. Equipping communities with digital skills might just be the ultimate long-term solution to overcoming this opportunity hurdle.
Boldr partners with more training centers in the Philippines
Part of Boldr’s commitment under the first pillars of its Theory of Change is to partner with local training centers to expand access to digital skills training among underserved groups. The intention is to connect training center graduates to meaningful and decent work. Having piloted a training center partnership in Cape Town with Shadow Careers, followed by a second partnership with the Good Work Foundation in Hazyview. In this instance, the partnership was with BagoSphere and The Asia Foundation’s Skills2Work.
BagoSphere is a workforce development and digital skills institute working to “accelerate career readiness and growth among low-income youth”. Over the last ten years, BagoSphere has upskilled and provided opportunities to over 7,000 individuals across multiple regions in the Philippines, such as (but not limited to) Metro Manila, Region IV-A, Negros, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, and Bulacan. BagoSphere applies an innovative “human-centered design” approach to all its training modules to prepare the Philippine workforce with both the “digital and human skills” necessary to thrive.
Caption: Boldr’s BPO Career Readiness Webinar in partnership with BagoSphere
The Asia Foundation’s Skills2Work Program is a recently jump-started “upskilling and return-to-work” program designed to help individuals to start, or transition into, new jobs in the digital economy. The program was launched to upskill individuals whose careers were impacted by COVID-19 and digital transformation. Skills2Work is part of The Asia Foundation’s Future Skills Alliance, a network of stakeholders collaborating to deliver skills for the future of work. Skills2Work launched its pioneer batch in October.
“Leveraging the programmatic experience and access to communities of these two training centers is a strategic way for us to achieve economies of scale and depth in our impact, specifically in promoting digital skills training. We are keen to deliver on our commitment to support digital skills training in the Philippines and believe in the potential for investing in and connecting talent where they exist.” – Glo Guevarra, Impact Manager
Boldr will serve as an industry and thought leadership partner for both BagoSphere and The Asia Foundation by connecting graduates from both organizations to our roster of open opportunities and by providing career development support to prospective candidates. By intentionally partnering with training institutions, Boldr aims to help reduce systemic barriers to job-readiness training and careers for individuals lacking the resources required to complete a traditional tertiary-level education. According to Glo Guevarra, making digital skills training an accessible alternative learning pathway helps prepare more Filipinos to be job-ready and resilient for the future of work.
About Boldr
Boldr is the largest B-Corp certified BPO in the world. We are a purpose-driven and people-focused outsourcing company built to help our teams, our clients, and our communities grow and connect.
James Fouche is a Content Writer at Boldr, an author and a columnist. He is passionate about sharing his love of reading and writing with others.
