This Friday Costa Rica’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security along with the company SYKES signed an addendum to an agreement that will train and hire hundreds of people in the upcoming months, thanks to the SYKES’ English Academy.

From now on, SYKES will teach English to those who are willing to work but don’t have B2 or C1 English levels, which are required at the Services sector.

The Empléate program will also enroll students without socioeconomic, gender or age terms. SYKES will identify them in their regular evaluation and recruitment processes and refer them to Empléate so, once they are admitted, they can enroll the Academy and be beneficiaries of this program.

It is expected that, by the end of this year, 2,500 people will be available for hire in the sector. SYKES will hire 70% of them and the other 30% will be employed by other services companies in Costa Rica. The goal is to train 10,000 people during the 4 year-program.

The new teaching program will last 5 months and will enroll people with A2+ English levels, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The course includes the highest teaching levels included within the original agreement, which last between 1-2 months. SYKES’ teaching method reduces significantly the learning process for anyone to reach the required levels for working at the Services sector.

The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, highlighted the importance of these type of efforts among the public and private sector and reaffirmed the government’s compromise to promote bilingualism in Costa Rica, since we live in a world that demands a second language for obtaining  better job opportunities and quality of life.

For his part, the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Steven Núñez, said: “These agreements, signed within the framework of the Alliance for Bilingualism, will allow us to have a more skilled workforce. We are reaching to more Costa Ricans that are learning and speaking a second language, which opens more real opportunities of being employed in the labor market.”

CINDE’s Managing Director, Jorge Sequeira, expressed: “We celebrate this initiative that promotes bilingualism and, therefore, generates more working opportunities. Statistics, based upon the National Household Survey and the University of Costa Rica, show that the unemployment of those who speak English is two percentage points lower than that of those who are non-bilingual; which means that the unemployment rate is reduced by 25%. In addition, those bilingual people, who work in the private sector, earn on average 30% more than to those who do not speak a second language.”

SYKES Academy will obtain a stipend from each participant, achieved from the Empléate program. This is a representative percentage since the real cost of each course is given by SYKES’ scholarships.

This way, SYKES will have resources to increase its installed capacity to train more people to be hired by the company and the rest of the labor market. CINDE will oversee the hiring process in other companies from the Services sector.

“We are clear about the challenges our industry has and we believe that investing on training human talent for the sustainability of our business and for strengthening the whole sector, the social mobility, and to increase the country’s competitiveness. We are happy to have a positive impact in many people’s life through our English Academy and to promote their skills for being hired in new jobs that will let them grow and project themselves,” said Alejandro Arciniegas, SYKES Costa Rica’s General Manager.

Since the foundation of SYKES Academy, in 2007, the company has enrolled more than 11,000 people. All its graduates have obtained a job offer from SYKES.