Contractors and property maintenance companies looking at offshore office staff usually ask the same first question: how good is their English? The short answer is that English is an official language in the Philippines, it is taught in schools from the first year, and it is the language of the country’s largest export industry. The details below explain where that comes from, what the measured proficiency looks like, and how to check it for yourself before you commit.
The Philippines has two official languages. Article XIV, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution names Filipino and English as the official languages for communication and instruction, with regional languages serving as auxiliary languages in their regions.
That status has practical effects. National laws are published in English. Government forms, court filings, contracts, and most business paperwork are written in English. A Filipino office worker has been reading and filling out English documents for their whole working life, which is a different starting point than learning English as a foreign language for a job.
The Department of Education has run a bilingual education policy since Department Order 52, series of 1987, which assigns Filipino and English as the languages of instruction and splits subjects between them. Science, math, and English classes are taught in English. Social studies and Filipino are taught in Filipino.
The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 introduced a change for the earliest grades, requiring instruction in the child’s regional language from kindergarten through Grade 3 before moving to Filipino and English. In October 2024, Republic Act 12027 reversed that. The medium of instruction from kindergarten to Grade 3 is again Filipino and English, with regional languages as auxiliary media.
Either way, a Filipino who finished high school has spent most of their school years being taught in English for a large share of their subjects. College instruction is mostly in English as well.
The most widely cited measure of English across countries is the EF English Proficiency Index, published each year by the education company EF. In the 2025 edition, the Philippines scored 569 on an 800-point scale, which places it in EF’s “high proficiency” band, and ranked 28th of 123 countries. The global average was 488.
EF’s fact sheet also breaks the score down by skill and by job function. For the Philippines, writing scored highest at 603, followed by reading at 573, listening at 567, and speaking at 539. By job function, admin and clerical workers scored 600, accounting and finance workers scored 599, and customer service workers scored 579. All of those sit at or near the top of the high band.
One caution on the source. EF’s index is built from people who chose to take the company’s free online test, so it is a large sample but it is a self-selected one. It is useful for comparing countries and for spotting trends. It is less useful for predicting how one specific person will perform in one specific role, which is why a direct check matters.
English is the working language of the Philippine IT and business process management industry, the sector that includes call centers, back office services, and shared services for foreign companies. According to the industry association IBPAP, as reported by The Manila Times, that industry earned $40 billion in 2025 and employed 1.9 million people, up from $38 billion and 1.82 million in 2024.
Those 1.9 million people spend their working day reading, writing, and speaking English with customers and colleagues in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Many of the office staff a contractor would hire offshore come out of this industry or trained for it.
Philippine English follows American conventions. Spelling is American. Dates are written month first. The vocabulary for office equipment, phones, and software matches what a US or Canadian owner uses. For a Canadian contractor, the main adjustment is spelling, which is a settings change in most software.
A national score describes an average. The person you hire is an individual, and the range within any country is wide.
Speaking is the lowest of the four skill scores for the Philippines. In practice, that shows up as an accent, which varies by region, and as differences in pace and phrasing. Comprehension is usually intact. Written English tends to be the stronger skill, which fits back office work such as invoicing, scheduling, data entry, and email follow-up well.
Industry vocabulary is separate from language proficiency. A candidate with strong English may still need to learn what a condenser, a work order, a lien waiver, or a make-ready is. That is a training question, and it is worth asking a provider how they handle it before you sign.
Three checks cover most of what an owner wants to know.
If a provider screens for English before presenting candidates, ask what the screen involves and whether you can sit in on it.
English proficiency is the first question most contractors ask about offshore staff, and it is one of several. Time zone coverage, software access, training on your process, and how the work is reviewed decide whether the arrangement works day to day. Avidus covers the full set, including how to structure the handoff, in its guide to back office outsourcing for contractors.