Apologies for joining this discussion late! My contribution to Qtn 7 is that the BPO sector has other processes that are not necessarily ICT, e.g. financial management, payroll, transcription etc. Should we have another database of skills in these fields? In answer to Qtn. 8, the KBPO Society has taken the lead by developing a BPO Training Competency Framework that highlights all skills and competencies required to work in this industry – not just by graduates, but by those in tertiary institutions as well. The Framework was developed after an extensive research of international curriculums in India, Mauritius, S. Africa, UK, and US, and is an excellent resource for training institutions, BPO operators, and students. And I agree with the suggestion that it needs to be customized to suit the Kenyan environment – very true! While I fully support the idea of entrenching a BPO curriculum in the university program, I am afraid the approval process can sometimes be too long. For training institutions that want to start offering BPO training, they can adopt the BPO Framework and immediately start training and this will ensuring a continuous supply of trained manpower. Esther

----- Forwarded message from Peres Were <pwere@cascadegl.com> ----- Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:01:55 +0300 From: Peres Were <pwere@cascadegl.com> Reply-To: Peres Were <pwere@cascadegl.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues To: godera@skyweb.co.ke

There is too much emphasis on equipping graduates at the expense of neglecting those in tertiary institutions, as mentioned by Lily below. If Kenya is aiming at a niche in Call Centre/Data Processing (which seems to be the case) then we should look at equipping students even in tertiary level institutions.

Quoting lily marusoi <lmarusoi@yahoo.com>:

...

My take on Q 7&8   We need to come up with a standardized national curriculum for the BPO sector a "finishing school" for those aspiring to work in the BPO sector.  Having looked at the KBPO society training framework I feel there is a need to customise it to fit our Kenyan  situation as some skills set were assumed to be obvious.    When we talk of equiping the graduates, lets not also forget that we have so many other youths graduating from tertiary institutions with certificates and diplomas.    Some major industry players have hinted that they prefer non graduates so long as they have the right attitudes, it is easier to train skills but not attitudes which is a major factor in the BPO sector.   Regards Lily  

--- On Mon, 6/8/09, Judy Okite <judyokite@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Judy Okite <judyokite@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 5 of 10- BPO Discussions, HR Issues To: lmarusoi@yahoo.com Cc: kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Monday, June 8, 2009, 11:50 AM

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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