Cebu City – Growth in demand for new services in the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is ushering in more job opportunities for human resource (HR) practitioners, an official from the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) said.

“Apart from the usual voice services in the call center industry, there is now a sudden need for HR practitioners as more companies resort to outsourcing some of their office functions,” said CICT Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim.

These HR functions include salary administration to compensation and benefits, among others.

In an interview here, Ibrahim said the academe should now look into creating more HR graduates aside from those in the hotel and restaurant management, in order to fill industry demands.

At present, he said, there are over 2,000 vacant positions for HR practitioners nationwide.

Despite this number, however, Ibrahim noted that BPO companies are experiencing difficulties in filling out vacancies for HR positions as there are only a few professionals in this field.

Ibrahim observed that only six universities in the Philippines are offering HR as a course program and that most industry practitioners have degrees in psychology.