The Tico Times Online Daily Page

State Institute Responds to Business
Demand for More English Speakers
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

In the coming years, call centers and related businesses are expected to generate 6,000 new jobs; and the National Training Institute (INA) is taking steps to ensure at least some will fall into the hands of those who need them most.

Officials from the state-funded institute announced yesterday that next month it will start offering free intensive English classes aimed at serving the growing industry of customer service call centers here being outsourced by businesses in the United States.

“In the United States, the demand in this sector has grown gigantic,” said Edna Camacho, general director of the Costa Rican Investment Board (CINDE), which is partnering with INA and businesses in the new program.

Human resources are more important than anything else in meeting this demand over the long term, added Alfredo Ribeiro, human resources manager for Hewlett Packard.

In five years, the industry here has grown to 6,000 jobs in 34 companies, including 1,300 jobs in Procter & Gamble, which calls Costa Rica home to its accounting and payroll services for the Americas, and 1,400 jobs in Sykes Latin America, which handles tech-support and consumer-product services for 16 multinational companies (TT, Oct. 1, 2004).

In the next four years, the United States will demand 500,000 such jobs outside the United States, Camacho said.

The English program aims to attract these jobs by providing qualified labor, and do so in a way that will benefit those who need it.

The nine-month course can be an alternative for recent high-school graduates who are financially unable to attend college, INA's Virgina Garita told The Tico Times.

The only educational requirement for the course is a high-school diploma. A basic knowledge of computer use is also preferred.

Because students must be available for the six-hour a day, daytime classes, throughout the duration of the nine-month course, it is limited primarily to recent graduates who do not have full-time day jobs or families. The classes are free and ¢50 million ($109,000) is available for food and transportation scholarships.

INA offers job placement and as sector demand grows, INA executive president Róger Carvajal said he is confident students will have little trouble finding work.

Because most call centers offer 24-hour services, employees may then have the time and financial resources to attend university, he said. The English courses may also be good for credit in Costa Rica's public technical schools and universities.

The courses are designed specifically to meet the language needs of the sector, and include lessons in conversation, reading, composition and pronunciation, with more than half of lesson-time dedicated to conversation. Students also have two 35-hour supervised internships in call centers.

According to the United Nations 2004 World Investment Report, for Costa Rica to maintain its position as one of Latin America's top per-capita recipients of direct foreign investment, one of its main priorities must be increasing its supply of English-speaking workers.

Five years ago, five in 10 people who applied for a job that required English-speaking skills met the hiring criteria. Today only three in 10 applicants fit the bill. The first companies to arrive took the cream of the crop, according to Tomás Gilmore, one of CINDE's directors (TT, Oct. 1, 2004). Newer arrivals have had a harder time.

Costa Rica is therefore at a comparable disadvantage with outsourcing powerhouse India, where English is widely spoken, and El Salvador, which is home to thousands of English-speaking expatriates, Gilmore said.

Under the new program, classes are being offered in various INA centers, primarily in the Central Valley, including downtown (on Paseo Colón), and in Alajuela, Grecia, Heredia and Naranjo.

However the program could be extended throughout the country as demand requires, Carvajal said.

“Right now we are beginning in the Central Valley… We are working where there is a demand. We will extend the program to other places if there is investment there,” he said.

The program will begin Feb. 9 with 10 groups of 25 students. Garita said she hopes another round of classes can be started around April.

Registration for the classes will be held Feb. 1-2, 8 a.m., in the auditorium of INA La Uruca, in northwestern San José, across from the National Amusement Park.

For more information, call 222-7210, 221-8898 or 451-0433, ext. 207 or 208.