Essential News

• Addendum to agreement promotes teaching English to Costa Ricans without socioeconomic, gender or age terms.

• SYKES Academy’s teaching method reduces the learning process that anyone requires to reach optimum levels for working at the Services Sector.

• SYKES will hire a high percentage of the trainees; the other part will be available for other companies of the same sector.

San José, Costa Rica. April 26th, 2019. Today the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and SYKES signed an addendum to an agreement that will train and hire hundreds of people in the upcoming months, thanks to SYKES’ English Academy.

The agreement was signed by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Steven Núñez, and SYKES Costa Rica’s General Manager, Alejandro Arciniegas. The witnesses of honor were the President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, and SYKES’ CEO, Chuck Sykes. The Private Sector Liaison Minister, André Garnier, and CINDE’s Managing Director, Jorge Sequeira, participated in the event too.

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 more and 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.

About SYKES

SYKES, a multinational company with more than 40 years of experience and 20 in the country, is a leader in outsourcing high-tech services. Located in Tampa, Florida, it has a global operation of more than 70 centers in 21 countries with close to 60,000 employees. With more than 12,000 employees and more than 30 clients, SYKES Latin America operates in Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil.

SYKES Costa Rica has more than 5000 employees and 20 years of having established. It operates in: La Aurora, Moravia, Hatillo center and San Pedro de Montes de Oca; and offers its collaborators an ideal environment for working, learning and professional development.

For more press information:

SYKES

Roy Mena, Corporate Affairs Director

roy.mena@sykes.com Of. 2298-2061

MTSS

Geovanny Diaz, Head of Communications and Media

geovanny.diaz@mtss.go.cr , Of. 2542-5759, Cel. 8821-0964

CINDE

Fabiola Domínguez, Communications and Country Brand Executive

fdominguez@cinde.org, 2201-2824