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

[S.Murigi Muraya]

Let us also factor in on the job training to improve our skill sets. 
Software engineers become masters of their craft by doing projects and 
by exchanging (code and concepts) with their peers. A classroom setting 
possibly contributes to less than 10% of all their success.

There have been a number of comments in these (BPO) discussions 
comparing us with India, South Africa and Mauritius.

We cannot rely on the whims of those with negative (but often valid) 
perceptions towards us. We need to give ourselves a chance that is of 
our own creation.

@ 40 Million (our 2010 population) growing at 2.5% 
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html 
and others estimate our population growth @ almost 2.7% per annum) we 
will add 1 Million Kenyans to our population next year. 2030 is sure to 
see us with a population of at least 60 Million.

With that in mind and given the fact political instability is the 
current (and unfortunately valid) excuse to avoid Kenya, we would be 
most ignorant NOT to focus most of our BPO efforts internally. This will 
build up LOCAL companies and on a REGIONAL basis. This will build up 
local talent who may otherwise be demoralized for not being Western 
enough to Foreign BPO companies.






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
>>     
> %3
>
>
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