Hey, Amazing contributions. The value of a network is indeed a function of what their membership puts on the table and I have to agree I have never seen so much value put forth in such a long time... Luckily, on our schedule, which I copy below for the benefit of the late-joiners, we have another day (today) to exhaust the HR issues. ===schedule===== 1.The policy, legal and institutional frameworks for BPO sector (2days, Walu moderating) 2.Subsidies accorded to BPO sector (2days, Walu moderating) 3.Human capacity issues (2days, Walu moderating) 4.Youth and gender issues (2days, Nyaki moderating) 5.Strengths and challenges for Kenya as a BPO destination (2days, Nyaki moderating) ====ends=== So lets have more contributions on HR and ofcourse belated contributions on previous themes (just post against the corresponding theme/subject line) walu. --- On Tue, 6/9/09, n_macharia@yahoo.co.uk <n_macharia@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: n_macharia@yahoo.co.uk <n_macharia@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Re: [kictanet] [Fwd: Re: Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues] To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 1:52 AM Marilyn, I agree with you entirely on the fact the graduates have the necessary business, computing and relevant techinical skills to take up jobs in BPO. Obviously no academic ttaining must be followed by job training. The present universities curriculum are under constant and regular reviews to make absolutely relevant and demand driven. CHE (Commision for Higher Education) demands that reviews and revions be done after every Five years. Such curriculum developments and revisions must provide evidence of all stakeholders participation ( professionals, industry, government, alumni etc) in curriculum development. In addition, IUCEA is also giving new guidelines for curriculum development esp for accreditation purposes. The formation of other bodies would look to mw like duplication. The principal focus is to create a suitable environment to manage and operate domestic BPOs which will be building capacity while we manage and repair our tarnished image abroad. Such investiments would not only create the much needed job opportunities but would also provide avenues for skills development and transfer.
Nancy Sent from my BlackBerry®
-----Original Message----- From: "Marilyn M. Kamuru" <mkamuru@emanageafrica.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 18:00:16 To: <n_macharia@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: [kictanet] [Fwd: Re: Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues]
Excellent point! I think we are making a huge mistake especially in light of the post election violence focusing so heavily on the foreign investors and the international BPO market.
I have been following this discussion and as a local BPO operator focused on the domestic market I can tell you we have a difficult time convincing local companies to outsource and while all this talk is good frankly I think we are missing the point. If the point is development, then why aren't we focusing on how to develop this industry as quickly and effectively as possible? In my view the low hanging fruit are the domestic opportunities but we need a lot more work in the form of government incentives to operators AND businesses to promote and support the nascent outsourcing industry. Yes, I read the post on the judiciary plans to outsource the transcription but I think there is plenty more work that can be outsourced and if the government wasn't so focused on the foreign investor and looked at the government as a consumer of outsourced services and the local private sector we may make more progress. My hope is that we can focus on creating the environment that makes it conducive to manage and operate domestic BPOs which will be building capacity while we manage and frankly repair our much tarnished image abroad. Just like a company needs to look at reinvesting retained earnings before it seeks outside financing, we need to look at what we can do locally before we start tapping the international market, especially given the heightened risk factors that Kenya faces since 2007/8.
This means: 1. Government departments, agencies outsourcing work to local companies and looking at outsourcing not as a way to shed jobs but as a means to better manage scare resources. 2. Tax breaks for local BPO operators and private companies contracting outsourcing services locally to incentivize operator investment and company adaption of services in this industry. Tax breaks should be immediate and not dependant on the entry or attraction of foreign investors. Those of us currently in operation are betting on Kenya. Instead of waiting we are putting our money to work believing in the future of this country...I don't think we are asking for too much when we ask the government to support our development. 3. Less focus on what we do not have and a greater focus on what we have. Skills, entrepreneurs and an optimistic view of our country as well as a domestic market and potential to tap into the larger regional market (EAC & COMESA).
Finally, I am of the contrarian view: we have the skill set, but because we are not willing to start where we are we are asking students and graduates to pay more money to get additional certification before we can get foreign investors interested in our country...Frankly I think we place too much stock in certificates and paper qualifications. If we ask these graduates to take another training class with the promise of better opportunity they will...instead I suggest we recognize the current intellectual capital that we have and those of us in the industry focus on the job training and going back to the role that government can play, obtain tax credits for this on the job training. Lets us make sure these graduates have work and build on that instead of creating additional hurdles to employment.
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues From: "S.Murigi Muraya" <murigi.muraya@gmail.com> Date: Mon, June 8, 2009 5:17 pm To: mkamuru@emanageafrica.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Priority: Normal
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.
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
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
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
bitange@jambo.co.ke wrote: through CCK to conduct ICT produced graduates 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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