Newsletter 43 – Accedo’s operations continue to grow in Cali
Accedo is a BPO established in Nicaragua that arrived in Cali in 2021. During the first year of operations in Valle del Cauca the company has hired 480 bilingual workers from the region, and it expects to reach 1,000 local bilingual employees from Cali and Jamundí.
The company has its facilities in the multi-business and technological zone called Zonamerica, located in the south of the city, a place with outstanding performance and growth that just announced that it will build a new building for its operations, which currently is under construction and advancing at a fast pace.
“We are a growing company, with a dynamic environment and career opportunities available in every area. We also offer indefinite contracts and other benefits to our collaborators. We are committed to the region’s reactivation and offer job opportunities without any previous working experience”, said Ana María Zorrilla, Sourcing & PR Lead from Accedo.
For Invest Pacific, the agency which promotes and attracts FDI to Valle del Cauca, Accedo’s growth reflects a favorable and competitive environment offered by the region to export outsourced services. “One of those factors is the high availability of young and qualified human talent in the region; the programs aimed at improving bilingual competences in this segment of the population; also a thriving business ecosystem, and finally the support from institutions and authorities that facilitate industrial operations”, said Alejandro Ossa, Invest Pacific’s Executive Director.
BPO, a growing industry
The BPO sector has been on a growing trend globally, and Colombia as part of this trend, has also outlined ambitious plans for the sector. According to the insight produced by BPRO – Colombian Association of BPOs -, this industry contributes 2.8% of the country’s GDP, and it has generated 35,000 new job positions in the last two years.
In addition to that, 50% of all investments supported by Invest Pacific during 2021 belonged to the BPO sector, other sectors that preferred the region are technology operations and software developers. These companies come from countries like Nicaragua, United States, United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, and France among others.
Invest Pacific has forecasted that 8,000 jobs can be created in the city and the region by 2023, but this can only be possible if continued efforts are invested in improving bilingual competences of the citizens, in order to help companies like Accedo thrive and continue growing, and at the same time this will help attract new investors to the region.
Opportunities are for everyone
In an effort to improve bilingualism, the region has been leading different training initiatives, this is being done jointly with a set of companies, associations, compensation funds, authorities, universities and other organizations. Many of these training initiatives have been proposed by the companies that invest in the region, Accedo is one of them.
“We are aware that reaching a high English level can be challenging for some individuals, therefore we have created an in-house academy that is free of charge in order to go from an intermediate level of English to an advanced one, while at the same time reinforcing skills and opening the possibility to land a job. We have joined many of those training initiatives in the sector, where many attendees successfully finished the courses and were hired after going through a selection process”, Ana María Zorrilla explained to us, from Sourcing & PR Lead, Accedo.
