EVERY EMPLOYEE, EVERY COMMUNITY

Workshops upskill for employment readiness

By Jean Estuesta

Niva and Kristelle are senior high school students at Sisters of Mary School, in the Philippines. Both aim to join the workforce immediately after graduation so they can help their families. They participated in bookkeeping and customer service workshops that Cummins Philippines’ CIT and WERG jointly arranged, in partnership with the finance and customer service teams, and the school. The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is a pillar of the Philippines economy. Accounting back-office support continues to grow, despite the pandemic, and demand for talent is high. More people are doing short courses in accounting, bookkeeping and customer service because job opportunities await people with those skills. The forecasted headcount growth rate in contact centres and BPO ranges from 2.8% to 6.7%. The finance team developed the bookkeeping workshop to strengthen students’ knowledge on recording and ledgering work. The workshop includes basic information on invoices, official receipts, value added tax and journal entries, among others.

Hands-on experience

The customer service team adopted a module available in the Cummins Learning Centre, with some add-ons to include their own experiences in training. Both workshops aim to give students hands-on experience by working on business case situations that resemble real-life scenarios.

The overwhelming number of participants speaks for the workshops’ success. There were 348 students registered for bookkeeping and 342 for customer service. The workshops were delivered virtually, enabling all those who registered to participate. While virtual delivery was challenging, the workshops were made more engaging by including business cases for students to work on. The bookkeeping workshop ran for 1.5 hours over three days and customer service was two hours.

Sisters of Mary School provides free high school education and lodging to students from low-income families in different parts of the country. The school curriculum includes vocational and technical education to equip students with skills they can use to earn a living. Sister Mylene, the school administrator, said 70% of students immediately join the workforce after graduation. Currently there are about 3,600 students. The upskilling workshops leverage on the knowledge and skills of Cummins employees. The customer service and finance teams did an excellent job developing and delivering the training, as seen by the positive feedback.

Customer service

Niva said: “The course on customer service taught me a great deal: to always value customer loyalty. The primary reason for the existence of a company or business is its customers. The training on customer service has taught me the customers are always right, but that is no reason to allow irate customers to pay no respect. Cummins’ guidance on proper customer service is remarkable because they taught us the need for promptness, friendliness, professionalism, empathy, conflict resolution and, most of all, integrity. “I learned the specifics of the critical components of customer service as they always provided sample situations with the wrong and right ways of handling them. I am certain that, when I’m confronted with such a situation, I can avoid the wrong way of handling customers [providing] I am equipped with the right manners, attitude and character. The overall takeaway I have is to always be polite and give customers the highest level of satisfaction while maintaining integrity.”

Business process

Kristelle said: “The bookkeeping webinar helps me a lot, especially in improving my bookkeeping and accounting skills that prepare me for a real job. Firstly, I have learned the importance of payables in the business process, that having debt is not always negative – debt or payables can be viewed as a way to control the flow of money and can bring some profit for the business.

“Secondly, I see the importance of business documents that serve as proof of legality of a transaction between people. Thus, in every transaction we deal with, most especially in business, we must always seek legal business documents to ensure the legality of the transaction, to avoid scams or loss of money, and to have evidence or proof of purchase and indebtment.

“Thirdly, I have learned the value of tax and how it operates in the business. As a business or legal entity, we must always consider tax a part of the process and we must rightly pay it for the betterment of our community. Last, and most especially, I have learned about the importance of values such as integrity, leadership, and excellence in the workplace. “As the speakers shared that Cummins upholds values, I have realised that in working I must always have good values where my personality and character is built upon. “Despite any challenges and difficulties I encounter, I must always do excellent work out of love. I can fly high and reach all my dreams as a person with good character and competence.”

EEEC project recognition: Women Who Weld

Throughout 2021, Cummins has partnered with the Queensland Manufacturing Institute to enable young women to try welding, learn safety considerations, and talk with industry professionals. Women Who Weld workshops have been conducted at several schools across Queensland with great feedback from students and staff.

Workshops, led by engaging and positive teachers, start with an overview of safety theory and an introduction to MIG welding. Students then can create their own jewellery trees to put their knowledge into practice. The goal is hearing first hand from industry and for industry to build gender diversity in their workplaces. Women Who Weld aims to address the national trade skills shortage and increase young women’s interest in careers in manufacturing. As 76% of jobs in Queensland’s manufacturing sector are occupied by men, Cummins is pleased to participate in programs like this to increase workplace gender equality and share what we are doing to increase the gender balance in staffing. The program promotes engineering subjects at a senior stage of school learning to broaden young people’s horizons and advance manufacturing and engineering industry opportunities. The workshops help to build confidence and self-esteem in young women and demonstrate that there are many possible career options.