Accenture ropes in MIT for Training Program
Date: 07-08-2007
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Outsourcing service company Accenture is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a training program that will be implemented in its Philippine offices.
Just last week, Accenture expanded its operations in the country with the opening of an IT services center in Cebu to complement its Manila operations.
“The MIT will accredit our courseware for the Accenture Solutions Development Academy. It will help IT graduates become IT professionals through training in processes that the industry actually needs,” Keith Haviland, lead of delivery center network for technology of Accenture, said in a news briefing.
The program is scheduled for implementation within the next two years, Haviland said. Beth Lui, country managing director of Accenture Manila, said the company's Cebu facility formed part of a strategy of finding more professionals outside of Metro Manila.
Lui said Accenture would replicate in Cebu its practice of coordinating with Metro Manila-based universities for the training of graduating students so they would be ready to work in the outsourcing industry. “One of the reasons we are going outside Manila is the saturation of the market there. Cebu is capable of providing us the talent pool we need,” Lui said.
The Cebu facility will initially have 500 seats for software developers and engineers providing application, infrastructure, and systems management services. These are high-value offerings, unlike traditional call center services.
Accenture officials declined to disclose the amount invested in the new facility. The Metro Manila and Cebu facilities are expected to grow Accenture's Filipino workforce from the current 12,000 to 65,000 by the end of the year.
Accenture launched its first delivery center in Manila in 1985 and has since opened nine other facilities in key areas in Metro Manila, including Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Quezon City. Accenture Philippines was recently named BPO Company of the Year in the International ICT Awards.
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