<h1 class='title'>Philippines Drops Behind Vietnam and Thailand in English Proficiency</h1>

When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly look for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.                                    -Pat Riley 

The NEWS last night that the Philippines had fallen behind Vietnam and Thailand in English Proficiency among college graduates in Asia serves as an eye opener for our country’s policy makers, especially now that the Philippine BPO industry is about to shift into Artificial Intelligence where the mode of instruction will most probably be strictly English. According to Hopkins International, which recently administered a Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) exam for ten thousand Filipino graduating college students, the average score the Philippines got was a CEFR Level B1 which is fourth from the highest CEFR Proficiency Level of C2 and is equivalent to the English proficiency level of high school students in Vietnam and Thailand. Stated another way, our college graduates have the English proficiency level of a Vietnamese or Thai high school student.

TOEIC is an English language testing system developed by US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) designed specifically to measure the everyday English listening, speaking and writing skills of people working or seeking to work in an international environment where English is the primary medium of instruction. There are other English Proficiency testing services like Cambridge, CEFR, IELTS and others that basically have the same purpose of testing and grading your level of English proficiency.

In sharp contrast, Switzerland-based EF EPI, another English proficiency testing service, ranked the Philippines as third in Asia behind Singapore and Malaysia and fifteenth worldwide as of 2017. You could say it all depends on who does the testing but take note that the Philippines was thirteenth worldwide in 2016. It’s not that we’re getting less proficient but more like other countries are getting much better.

This news isn’t exactly surprising as far as I’m concerned. As a supervisor, I had the privilege of training and molding as many as sixty mostly newbie call center agents over a two year period. They were an odd group of college graduates, working students and even high school graduates. On the production floor, I would regularly listen to calls as part of my monitoring and some calls would make me fall off my seat and ask myself, “How did that guy get past recruitment?” I can almost tell just by listening from the conversation that this customer will ask to speak with someone else. Often, you really cannot blame customers why they would prefer to speak with an American representative. It’s up to the sup to intervene and try to save the call or risk getting a DSAT. English proficiency isn’t just the ability to speak but more importantly the ability to comprehend what the other person is saying and responding appropriately.

Will Vietnam or Thailand become the next best destination for BPOs now that they have overtaken the Philippines in terms of English proficiency? I’m no economist so I’m not even going to guess which country can offer lower wages and easier to do business with. I do know that other than being proficient in English, a neutral accent also plays an important function when communicating with English-speaking customers. Perhaps Filipino call center agents have an advantage as far as neutral accent is concerned but I could be wrong. I have seen Thai celebrity Aerin Yuktadatta on History Channel’s Celebrity Car Wars and if most Thais can speak English as good as Aerin does, then we’re in trouble! And don’t forget Vietnam was a French colony and damn what an advantage Vietnam would have if they could speak both English and French proficiently! Suddenly we’re not feeling so cocky anymore, eh?

Aerin Yuktadatta

This should serve as a wake up call for every one who has a stake in the Philippine call center industry. Obviously we cannot sit on our laurels and be complacent anymore. This did not happen overnight. Vietnam and Thailand have long been working hard to be more proficient with their English skills and finally have overtaken us. On top of this, we also have the rise of Artificial Intelligence to cope with. Other than remittances from our OFWs, call centers and BPOs remain to be among the Philippines’ top revenue centers adding 25-Billion much needed dollars to our economy in 2017. With the recent economic changes being implemented in the Middle East that could adversely affect our OFW sector, it would be a fiscal nightmare if we also lose a big chunk of the call center industry at this critical point in our economy.

Concrete and immediate steps should be taken to recover lost ground and we should start at school where learning takes place. We never required English proficiency as a pre-requisite to enter college like Vietnam and Thailand did. Perhaps it is high time we do. Teachers should also be certified English proficient. How can a teacher teach English well if she herself is not proficient? These are small steps we can take now that can bring big benefits in the near future. On a more personal level, you yourself can test your own English proficiency and see which level you are at. There are several sites where you can take the exam for FREE. I also posted an ARTICLE earlier where you can take a FREE English proficiency exam. I encourage you to challenge yourself to take any or all of the free proficiency exams just so you would know how you can further improve your English proficiency.

About 20 years ago, India was the leading country as far as call centers are concerned. Back then, India probably did not even consider the Philippines as a threat when we first joined the call center bandwagon. After just a few years, the Philippines caught up and eventually overtook India as the leading outsourcing destination for foreign companies. Although it would probably be a long time before Vietnam or Thailand could even hope of catching up with the Philippines as a leading outsourcing destination, it would still be best to be proactive and avoid losing out in the end.