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Call centers are booming in the Philippines, and one industry group is hoping it can help save the poorest of the nation's street children.

This week, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) formally launched the BPAP Careers for Street Kids Program, a program designed to help underprivileged but talented high-school graduates and college-level students land a good job in the call center industry.

The Philippines' Business Mirror reported today that BPAP, together with several partners – Children’s Hour Philippines, Streetkids International and Virlanie Foundation – has identified 25 poor but deserving students to start with. The beneficiaries will undergo a six-month career training program.

In the next two years, a total of 100 more, 50 for each of the succeeding years, will be identified to be enrolled in the program. The BPAP currently seeks what it calls the “poorest of the poor” young people who are nevertheless able to graduate high school and who possess good oral and written communication skills.

The program will have two tracks: one will be for high-school graduates headed for blue-collar jobs such as messengers, janitors and other support services in partner-BPO companies. The second track is for the college level students looking for employment as call center agents and back-office BPO personnel.

Evangeline T. Mayuga, executive director of Children’s Hour and one of the implementers of the project, told the Business Mirror that the program aims to provide the necessary skills training for beneficiaries.

“We would like to be able to get the youth out of the streets by providing them employment opportunity,” she said.