This is the fourth straight week I am writing on Medical Transcription as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry that would generate a lot of employment in Eastern Visayas.

A question that is relevant at this point is: who can enroll in a Medical Transcription course?

The usual thinking is: only those taking up or have graduated from a medical course like nursing, physical therapy, medical technology or medicine.

The answer is that while being a graduate of such a degree is advisable, it is not necessary.

At this time 20% of medical transcriptionists (MTs) in the country are not graduates of a medical course. Of the nearly 5,000 MTs in the Philippines, 1,000 are not graduates of a medical course.

In fact, there are MTs who are high school graduates and have not enrolled in any course.

How is that?

Being a good MT requires English proficiency – the ability to accurately listen to spoken English and to know English grammar.

The MT training that will be offered starting October in some State Universities and Colleges in Eastern Visayas will only be a 3-month course plus a 1 month On-the-Job training.

What does this mean? If you are proficient in English and can listen carefully and encode what you hear accurately, you will have a job after just four months of training.

And the pay is good.

After 6 months of probationary work, the pay goes up from the minimum wage to P9,000 a month.

Those with 1 year experience get paid from P12,000 to P14,000 a month because their accuracy increases as they gain more experience.

I will write more on this next week with a focus on where one can get employed.