Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills?<br><br>I have had an opportunity to do a quick match of skills and vertical requirements of the BPO sector. It is at its simplest form and designed to make us question as wheher we already have the training in place for BPO save for the induction and cultural aspects training that should be largely done inhouse?<br>
<br>Let me start off by saying that I have done this from the education perspective mainly and found that we do already have core skill dissemination in place and now need to match that with the various verticals within the BPO sector itself, here I have just guessed and I hope BPO sector players and related experts will not take offense.<br>
<br>Common requirements that will be handled in house - Customer care
skills and voice/accent training, basic ICT skills for data entry, culture trainign ( for offshoring customer care) etc.<br><br><b>Level 1</b> - Call Centre type of skills for travel, technical support, customer care, basic financial services, .<br>
<br>Training centres/skills sets required are already in place as many leave high school and go to colleges for travel courses, Computer science diplomas, book keeping and will ofcourse need the ' common requriements' above to qualify for working at the call centre type BPO's. No offense but I think this is where we are in Kenya and will be for a few more months ( years?) Do we need to make these colleges robust? <br>
<br><b>Level two (i)</b> - medical and legal transcriptions<br><br>Transcription skills - these may also be handled in house or at an established BPO training centre but will need pre-entry skills? here we may need to identify bridging course - pre-med/pre-legal that are necessary to respond to the queries in this level of BPO. Naturally those heading each deparment within the BPO will be themselves of medical/legal backround pertaining to the field. <br>
<br>A little analogy here is the X-ray technician who takes your Xray but does not 'interpret' it. (that is the radiologists area?) so what are the two different skill sets required. we would expect in the BPO set up may technicians less radiologists if we are to follow through with the analogy?<br>
<br>so we need information from the BPO players for this level then education curriculum developers for the tertiary level will determine the diploma level requriements to qualify. again, we may find that the KMTC already caters for this level? So will it be a question of expanding the Kenya medical Training centre and adding a relevant ICT course there as an option to those who want to stem off into BPO<br>
<br>Level Two (ii) - Finance/logistics/accounting<br><br>Once again we have the learning institutions that are already in place to certify these skills. And within areas like logistics and book keeping some of these are 'learnt on the job' so once again perhaps the in house training can take care of the prep required to qualify for work within the BPO sector. The BPO sector will use the same skills acuired during the diploma course but change the work process required.<br>
<br>Level three<br><br>Software developement and animations<br><br>I am beginning to sound like a broken record ( scratched CD?) we have the colleges already in place teaching these skills. they may be few or only centred in the urban areas but they are there. Again if we branch into eg Architectural design then we start to look at enhancing CAD training into these colledges and we start to expand offering to the students who in turn qualify for the BPO sector.<br>
<br>Iet me hasten to add the issues of quality in training, certification, practical application/internship, incubation have not in anyway been covered in the above. These are obviuosly critical but not for this particular discussion.<br>
<br>I am sure there are more tangents off the HR issue that can stem from this submission, I am hoping it will lead us to see that we have a really well developed education structure our key issues being more directional, strategy led leadership gaps in order to make what we have work for us.<br>
<br><br>Ms Basly<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Sam Aguyo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:saguyo@yahoo.com">saguyo@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div>Hello,<br><br></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">I mentioned
earlier that we should not be reactive to issues that are long term like
education.<span> </span>Recently, an institution
changed its name to one that is indicative am left wondering what will happen
when the trend changes in future that<span>
</span>will render such non consequential, will we change the name again?.<span> </span>Jog up your mind, we have technicians who
were trained on fixed telephony, when cellular came, are they still relevant?</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">When we talk of
HR it is long term therefore narrowing it down (read BPO training) in our
institutions would be very short term, am wondering whether we really need to
call it BPO training that lasts four years at the university/college graduate
with a certificate look for a job in the market!</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Am a consumer of
services, when I call a provider for service, my primary concern is whether my
problem has been solved by the person I spoke with, not the accent.<span> </span>I will be so dissatisfied if the fellow
speaks very well but no problem sorted out.<span>
</span>For this fellow to sort out my problem, she/he needs to understand in
detail – technology, culture and the business environment of the institution he
is representing.<span> </span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">What is critical
for us is to come out with basic principles like the accountants have – asset and
liabilities, credit and debit, we can copy the same. This can be taught to the
young souls at different levels so that they grow with it.<span> </span>Meaning if one is a practising accountant,
there is no problem keeping books for a one man outfit, a multinational, an NGO
or a church.<span> </span>In the same way outsourcing
for a Japanese, Korean, Kenyan or Tanzanian companies </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">In short term,
we need to carry out an audit of the requirements of the sector, the likely
markets, there needs against the sort of personnel we have.<span> </span>If there is a shortfall, such institutions as
MMU and what the BPO society has can be used to train.<span> </span>While in the long run, we need to work on our
curriculum to develop graduates who are multi dimensional. <br></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br><span lang="EN-GB"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Sam <br></span></p>
</div></div><br>
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