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

[Eric M.K Osiakwan]

In advancing these discussions, we need to keep in mind the short,  
medium and long terms objectives. It is important that we have a  
strategic link between then and not just stop sometimes at just the  
first or second level.

Some of what Dr. Ndemo advanced are the short term, we need to  
carefully tire them into the medium and long term. There are people  
who can this when you wake them up from their sleep so we look forward  
to their leadership.

Am not sure where we would place change in University curriculum and  
getting ready to go skills for the job market? In my view that  
requires a strong link between academia and private sector, hither  
too, that is a very weak link. Again, where do you place that in the  
value chain?

Eric here


On 8 Jun 2009, at 10:47, Mwololo Tim wrote:

> 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, <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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Eric M.K Osiakwan
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