MANILA, Philippines -- Accenture is looking to train Filipino human resource (HR) professionals that can be deployed to outsourcing centers in other countries.

Accenture launched its HR Academy in partnership with the Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP).

Ateneo and PMAP helped design the courses to be taken by HR professionals employed by Accenture Philippines. The program started in May with around 40 employees.

The courses, designed specific to BPO (business process outsourcing) environments, combine classroom sessions with on-the-job training.

Next to India, the Philippines is the second country to get its own HR academy.

Accenture started the program in India around three years ago and some 80 workers have taken the courses, which last around 12 to 18 months.

Locally, Accenture already employs around 16,000 workers, making the Philippines the third-largest in terms of headcount next only to the US and India.

"This (HR Academy) allows us to create HR managers at scale and generate people internally instead of getting from outside the company," said Rahul Verma, Accenture's HR strategy director.

Accenture Philippines employs around 320 HR professionals, according to Ramona Velasco, country HR lead for Accenture Philippines.

Meanwhile, Lynne Barry, Accenture HR director covering Australia, Korea and Southeast Asia, said this early, there has been interest for Filipino HR professionals from Accenture sites in other countries.

Accenture employs more than 180,000 workers in nearly 50 countries. "Our goal is to build the next-generation of people that can function in Accenture anywhere in the world," Verma said.