[kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues

Mon Jun 8 17:03:13 EAT 2009

Dear Catherine - That report (which dealt with the overall
ICT workforce rather than just BPO) was handed over to the
sponsor, USAID in Dec. 2006. I do not know what they did with it
but I have attached a copy for those who may want to browse it.
It contained some policy recomendations maybe some are still
relevant.
Kind Regards,
Waudo

On Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:12 -0700, "Catherine Adeya"
<elizaslider at yahoo.com> wrote:

Apology I meant CSK (Computer Society of Kenya) conducted a study
some years back and not CFSK (Computers for Schools Kenya).
N
  ____________________________________________________________

From: Catherine Adeya <elizaslider at yahoo.com>
To: elizaslider at yahoo.com
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 3:13:47 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues

Tim et. al,
If I am not wrong there have been attempts to find a way to
develop a skills inventory in Kenya especially of IT or
IT-related graduates. I do believe CFSK conducted a study a few
years back, am not sure what became of the study. There were also
attempts by others to develop such a database but some were
curtailed due to lack of funding or good-will....if some of you
are out here in cyberspace kindly do share so we build on what
you have done and do not reinvent the wheel.
Walu, you may remember some of the round-tables we were involved
in some years ago. What we realized immediately is that the
universities did not even know where their graduates were, they
did not have an active alumni network to help them identify the
sectors that were absorbing their graduates and where the gaps
were as this could inform curriculum review. I know it is a long
shot to expect the universities to do this but I think it would
help if specific departments tried to collate this information.
If the potential graduates knew it would be beneficial for them
to share that information once they graduate then it may ease the
process. Beneficial in two ways, to help with curriculum review
and place share their names and details with those looking for
the relevant skills....ok am waffling I know. I think the team
was on to something there but we kind of dwelt too much on the
successful South African model where they did an excellent study
titled the SAITIS study as far back as 1998 and I think updated
the study and implementation around 2004 or so, I can't remember
off the top of my head. I know that relevant institutions came
together to share their expertise in the study so that it was
representative and collaborative.
The studies basically covered a number of issues including the
national IT Education and Training intiatives in SA (including
schools, tertiary institutions, government and private sector
iniatives. It attempted to categorize jobs and skills in the IT
industry and looked at it in the context of global trends. There
are similar studies elsewhere but I thought I  may highlight on
this one as I read about it years ago.

Best,

Nyaki

  ____________________________________________________________

From: Mwololo Tim <timwololo at gmail.com>
To: elizaslider at yahoo.com
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 1:47:11 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues
Bwana Ndemo,
These are good initiatives. However, I believe we need to look at
the total secondary and tertiary education system to make sure it
produces the skill sets we require for the BPO&O sector,
depending on the strategy we take as a country. One university
college, which is new and still struggling to "stand up", so to
speak, will not do. Of course we need the skills inventory you
talk about to know where we are so that we can take an
appropriate strategy for skills development. I know KNBS is
currently very busy focusing on the census and I am not sure they
have adequate capacity to push several large projects
simultaneously, which may mean delays here. We might therefore
need to find ways of expediting this exercise.
tim
On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 1:31 PM, <[1]bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:

  Walubengo,
  With respect to capacity building, the Government has done the
  following
  Established Multimedia University to focus on IT Skills
  Development;
  Contracted the Central Bureau of Statistics through CCK to
  conduct ICT
  Skills inventory in Kenya and Set up a task force to look into
  Skills
  development as recommended by MaKinsey in the just concluded
  Value
  Proposition.  We are in the process of appointing other
  stakeholders into
  the committee.
  Although we do not have a sector strategy on Capacity
  building, the
  Governemnt takes issues of skills development very seriously.
  This is a
  matter that NESC emphasizes as key to our competitiveness.  In
  this regard
  we look forward to a quick finalization of the skills
  inventory and the
  task force recommendation.
  Regards
  Ndemo.

> -Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, Human Capacity Issues
>
> Morning all,
>
> I trust you had a refreshing weekend.  Today I want to
introduce the theme
> on Human Resource Development for the BPO industry.  The
Researchers found
> that India, S.Africa and Mauritius had a comprehensive
inventory of their
> skill-base that was also available for Validation by
prospective employers
> and investors.  Another observation was ofcourse the sheer
numbers of
> Indian graduates (millions) that made it the largest base of
highly
> skilled pool of graduates with strong mathematical/scientific
orientation.
>  Whereas, Mauritius was producing only 10,000 (university)
graduates per
> year compared to Kenya's 30,000 per year, Mauritius had the
advantage of
> properly documenting their national graduates database and
marketing it
> appropriately to potential clients in Europe/America.  In
addition, the
> Researchers noted that Mauritius had a government funded but
> Private-Sector oriented ICT Academy that produced graduates
specificially
> for the ICT industry.
>
> In Kenya, the Researchers observed that apart from the lack of
a national
> database on the available skills/graduates, some of the BPO
operators were
> engaged in vicious poaching cycles where Agents trained
in-house by one
> Operater are immediately hired by the Competing Operators. It
was noted,
> that an attempt has been made by the .KE Government to create
an
> Industry-specific University (Multimedia University College of
Kenya) to
> address the HR gap but its success or otherwise will remain to
be seen in
> a few years time.  The Researchers also noted that Kenya's
> English-speaking labor force had an edge over the Indian one
given that
> the average Kenyan had a "neutral" accent unlike the Indian
graduate who
> tended to have an "ethnic" accent that often distracted the
Euro-American

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