Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues

-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 markets/clients. But this advantage is yet to be exploited - even as the Indians move up the BPO value chain and concentrate on non-accent related processes such as Software Engineering, Research (Financial, Medicine, etc), Product (e.g. Civil and Architectural) Design amongst others. Which leads us to todays questions. Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years? Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills? Please, lets have your comments flowing,dig yahjwalu starting now... walu. Encl: Synthesis 3 - HR Issues

to answer both Q 7&8 my suggestion on this.....all graduates,should be equipped to work in a BPO,at the time of their graduation. BPO specifics,should be entrenched,within the curriculum.....with this there will be no descrimination and I believe it will bring in quality to this market e.g in USIU,I know you have to do a foreign language....at some point in your 2years of your time with them...it doesnt really matter what course your taking and level. Kind Regards, On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:
-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 markets/clients.
But this advantage is yet to be exploited - even as the Indians move up the BPO value chain and concentrate on non-accent related processes such as Software Engineering, Research (Financial, Medicine, etc), Product (e.g. Civil and Architectural) Design amongst others. Which leads us to todays questions.
Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years?
Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills?
Please, lets have your comments flowing,dig yahjwalu starting now...
walu.
Encl: Synthesis 3 - HR Issues
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Hi Judy Since we won't have a B.P.O course, I imagine the BPO issues may be incorporated in the curriculum under: 1.) University Common Courses (same way as Communications skills. 2.) Project Management 3.) Entrepreneurship courses 4.) Etc Therefore, would a student of medicine learn BPO specifics under Common Courses? The alternative situation would be where Business students have the same as a compulsory course while others take it as an elective. Wainaina On 6/8/09, Judy Okite <judyokite@gmail.com> wrote:
to answer both Q 7&8
my suggestion on this.....all graduates,should be equipped to work in a BPO,at the time of their graduation. BPO specifics,should be entrenched,within the curriculum.....with this there will be no descrimination and I believe it will bring in quality to this market e.g in USIU,I know you have to do a foreign language....at some point in your 2years of your time with them...it doesnt really matter what course your taking and level.
Kind Regards,
On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:
-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 markets/clients.
But this advantage is yet to be exploited - even as the Indians move up the BPO value chain and concentrate on non-accent related processes such as Software Engineering, Research (Financial, Medicine, etc), Product (e.g. Civil and Architectural) Design amongst others. Which leads us to todays questions.
Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years?
Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills?
Please, lets have your comments flowing,dig yahjwalu starting now...
walu.
Encl: Synthesis 3 - HR Issues
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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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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@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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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@gmail.com> To: elizaslider@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@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, <bitange@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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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@yahoo.com> To: elizaslider@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@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@gmail.com> To: elizaslider@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@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, <bitange@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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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@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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If considered in advance, the upcoming national census should also provide a more accurate picture of skills base in the country...I believe the KNBS is listening. I hope other vital ICT indicators have been incorporated in the census questionnaire (taking into consideration the length limitations). Edith -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: 08 June 2009 13:31 To: Edith Adera Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues 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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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@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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Well said Muraya. Gilda Quoting "S.Murigi Muraya" <murigi.muraya@gmail.com>:
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 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
bitange@jambo.co.ke wrote: 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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Dear Listers, Me thinks that not only should there be a register of the skills available, but it would have been nice for the research to provide deeper insights on type of skills and preferences for on-shore vs off-shore jobs - this would allow for a better assessment of skill gaps (vis a vis the target market) and to strategise accordingly by targeting markets where one has comparative advantage while working long-term in filling the skills gap to pursue harder markets to reach. Vision 2030 is 21 years away....this also has implications for what we do with the children joining nursery school today! Can we have short term and long-term plans that strive to quickly upgrade skills of young people joining the workforce (short-term: hence relevance of multi-media university) while institutionalizing science learning in the long-term at the start of school? This could be achieved through multi-media science teaching from an early age (nursery). Research has proven that multimedia curriculum content greatly enhances teaching and learning (and improves comprehension and maintains interests in subjects that may otherwise be boring e.g. science). Edith -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Walubengo J Sent: 08 June 2009 08:06 To: Edith Adera Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Subject: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues t -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 markets/clients. But this advantage is yet to be exploited - even as the Indians move up the BPO value chain and concentrate on non-accent related processes such as Software Engineering, Research (Financial, Medicine, etc), Product (e.g. Civil and Architectural) Design amongst others. Which leads us to todays questions. Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years? Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills? Please, lets have your comments flowing,dig yahjwalu starting now... walu. Encl: Synthesis 3 - HR Issues

Dear all, Sorry to catch up late on this. Been offline abit. If this perhaps has been addressed, apologies for repetition, but I suppose from the discussions aforegoing, and in order now to move forward, I suggest we formulate a comprehensive National BPO taskforce to give direction and come up with a methodology of harnessing the expertise we have in place already, and inventorize it.At the same time also come up with a strategy of developing and creating new potential within the value chain. Talent & expertise should be developed from an early age, and the place to start is our primary education institutions. Can we determinedly,albeit step by step in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to start reworking on our curriculum in centres of learning starting from the lower going up and make it more relevant in this time and age. You would agree with me, at some point each one of us back then did a lot of course subjects that are not in any way relevant to what you and me are doing now. How about narrowing down to specific area of concentration in study as one progresses up leading to specialization in career later. This would also help change a mindset that has existed for along time, where each of us only looked forward to being hired into a job. Period! Now this would change as skill sets are developed early on and learners exposed to opportunities and encouraged into entrepreneurship upon graduating. I feel Vision 2030 should encompass this approach to things. Development of potential, ultimately. Starting now.. Harry -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+harry=inds.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=inds.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Edith Adera Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 9:11 PM To: harry@inds.co.ke Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues Dear Listers, Me thinks that not only should there be a register of the skills available, but it would have been nice for the research to provide deeper insights on type of skills and preferences for on-shore vs off-shore jobs - this would allow for a better assessment of skill gaps (vis a vis the target market) and to strategise accordingly by targeting markets where one has comparative advantage while working long-term in filling the skills gap to pursue harder markets to reach. Vision 2030 is 21 years away....this also has implications for what we do with the children joining nursery school today! Can we have short term and long-term plans that strive to quickly upgrade skills of young people joining the workforce (short-term: hence relevance of multi-media university) while institutionalizing science learning in the long-term at the start of school? This could be achieved through multi-media science teaching from an early age (nursery). Research has proven that multimedia curriculum content greatly enhances teaching and learning (and improves comprehension and maintains interests in subjects that may otherwise be boring e.g. science). Edith -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Walubengo J Sent: 08 June 2009 08:06 To: Edith Adera Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Subject: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues t -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 markets/clients. But this advantage is yet to be exploited - even as the Indians move up the BPO value chain and concentrate on non-accent related processes such as Software Engineering, Research (Financial, Medicine, etc), Product (e.g. Civil and Architectural) Design amongst others. Which leads us to todays questions. Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years? Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills? Please, lets have your comments flowing,dig yahjwalu starting now... walu. Encl: Synthesis 3 - HR Issues _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: harry@inds.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/harry%40inds.co.ke

Listners, Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills? As we discuss HR issues i would want to be specific to question 8. It is very critical to give a more broad spectrum approach to the curriculum and we should not be too reactive. We realise that in this business, institutions are "transfaring part of them" to another location. There is need for short term and long term doses of intervention that can lead to production of a good workforce. For example, how can the curriculum include transcription or data entry as part of coursework at school/college which can either be emberded in English, Math.... Training specifically on transcription, data entry is not enough, how about culture, as we train on transcription (read technical) how about soft issues, would the students train and understand Japanese/Jamaican or American/Angolan cultures?, business to a great extent is culture. Some of this requers that the students are introduced to them in early stages so that they grow with them. Something like Understanding Diversity can be introduced in schools to prepare students for the new world order (globalisation) otherwise we risk churning out automatons. Qtn 7: How do we develop a national database on the wide-range of available ICT skill in Kenya - specifically which institution should be mandated to realise this, ensuring that such a database is kept upto date over the years? Regards, Sam Aguyo

Hello, I mentioned earlier that we should not be reactive to issues that are long term like education. Recently, an institution changed its name to one that is indicative am left wondering what will happen when the trend changes in future that will render such non consequential, will we change the name again?. Jog up your mind, we have technicians who were trained on fixed telephony, when cellular came, are they still relevant? 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! 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. I will be so dissatisfied if the fellow speaks very well but no problem sorted out. 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. 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. 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. In the same way outsourcing for a Japanese, Korean, Kenyan or Tanzanian companies 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. If there is a shortfall, such institutions as MMU and what the BPO society has can be used to train. While in the long run, we need to work on our curriculum to develop graduates who are multi dimensional. Sam

Sam I agree with you that we need to carry out an audit of the requirements of the sector. Kenya urgently needs to determine the current, medium term and long term supply capacity of required BPO skills and competencies - in relation to the current AND forecast market demand for BPO services. It is only after this that we can develop a credible framework for capacity building. Peres Quoting Sam Aguyo <saguyo@yahoo.com>:
Hello,
I mentioned earlier that we should not be reactive to issues that are long term like education. Recently, an institution changed its name to one that is indicative am left wondering what will happen when the trend changes in future that will render such non consequential, will we change the name again?. Jog up your mind, we have technicians who were trained on fixed telephony, when cellular came, are they still relevant?
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!
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. I will be so dissatisfied if the fellow speaks very well but no problem sorted out. 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.
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. 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. In the same way outsourcing for a Japanese, Korean, Kenyan or Tanzanian companies
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. If there is a shortfall, such institutions as MMU and what the BPO society has can be used to train. While in the long run, we need to work on our curriculum to develop graduates who are multi dimensional.
Sam

Qtn 8: What strategies should the country adopt to ensure a continuous supply of relevant and timely BPO-Specific skills? 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? 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. 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. *Level 1* - Call Centre type of skills for travel, technical support, customer care, basic financial services, . 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? *Level two (i)* - medical and legal transcriptions 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. 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? 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 Level Two (ii) - Finance/logistics/accounting 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. Level three Software developement and animations 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. 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. 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. Ms Basly On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Sam Aguyo <saguyo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello,
I mentioned earlier that we should not be reactive to issues that are long term like education. Recently, an institution changed its name to one that is indicative am left wondering what will happen when the trend changes in future that will render such non consequential, will we change the name again?. Jog up your mind, we have technicians who were trained on fixed telephony, when cellular came, are they still relevant?
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!
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. I will be so dissatisfied if the fellow speaks very well but no problem sorted out. 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.
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. 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. In the same way outsourcing for a Japanese, Korean, Kenyan or Tanzanian companies
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. If there is a shortfall, such institutions as MMU and what the BPO society has can be used to train. While in the long run, we need to work on our curriculum to develop graduates who are multi dimensional.
Sam
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participants (14)
-
bitange@jambo.co.ke
-
Catherine Adeya
-
Edith Adera
-
Eric M.K Osiakwan
-
Faima Basly
-
godera@skyweb.co.ke
-
Harry Delano
-
Judy Okite
-
Mwololo Tim
-
Peres Were
-
S.Murigi Muraya
-
Sam Aguyo
-
Wainaina Mungai
-
Walubengo J