To date, 200,000 people are working in 120 contact centers in the Philippines. By 2010, over 1 million Filipinos will work in the call center industry, generating US$ 12 billion for the economy.

However, of the 400,000 new graduates looking for work annually, only 2.89 percent are hired in business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and call centers.

Worse,less than 3 of every 100 college graduates are hired in these businesses yearly because they fail the qualifying exams.

The quality of spoken English in the Philippines is under threat. Business chambers, foreign and domestic, have voiced concern that the decreasing quality of English could hurt the country’s competitiveness.

"Englishlink offers a tool with which to change this situation. It is an affordable and convenient online school that offers native-speaker quality English lessons," according to Tito Chavez, VP — Marketing and Sales of Netopia.

"This product suits our target market of young Filipinos who need English to take part in the growing economy," he added.

Lesley Rogan, creator of Englishlink, feels the online English school can help Filipinos brush up on their skills.

"When I contact a call center, I can often tell when I am speaking with to a Filipino. While many of them have very good accents, there is something in the tone that is not natural to my ear. We can help with that," he noted.

Englishlink lessons provide learners with a native speaker model. The teachers focus heavily on listening and pronunciation skills. Learners can rewind a lesson clip and mimic the pronunciation of the teacher.

Englishlink electronic loads is available in all Netopia branches nationwide.

Englishlink is the world’s first fully videostreamed English as a Second Language (ESL) online training program for non-native speakers 18 years and older.