MTIAPI Recipient of BPAP-TESDA Sign Deal on PGMA Training Scholarship The Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines (MTIAPI) will benefit from the signed agreement of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Agency (TESDA) that would pave the way for near-hires to get training under a scholarship grant promised by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last year. MTIAPI will be allocated P 30 million worth of training vouchers out of the P350-million scholarship grant exclusively used to train near-hires for the outsourcing industry in the Philippines. The call center, animation, software sectors will also be recipients of the scholarship grant. The scholarship grant will come from the PGMA Training for Work Scholarship program, which offers vouchers to young graduates who have tried but failed to secure employment for lack of certain skills, thus the term near-hires. Under the BPAP-TESDA agreement, BPAP will take on the responsibility of distributing, allocating and promoting the vouchers to its member organizations. BPAP is the country’s umbrella organization for the Philippine outsourcing industry. TESDA, on the other hand, will be in charge of certification (or accreditation) of training institutions and the disbursement of fund. MTIAPI will release the guidelines for availing and distributing the vouchers to the members in April. In 2007, MTIAPi allocated 1,421 vouchers to its members. Last year, more than 80 percent of near-hires for the medical transcription industry secured a job after training. MTIAPI