Entrance Exams For Indian BPO Candidates

An entrance exam will soon be a requirement for BPO candidates. This annual exam will be given by a governing council to around 500,000 hopeful BPO recruits. This is a product of the team up of the National Association of Software and Service Companies and the information technology industry in an effort to work out a screening mechanism for call center recruits.

This is separate and different from the Karnataka-government-initiative BPO Skills Assessment Test since Nasscom plans to establish this as a mandatory test all over the country.

In an interview with Business Standard, Nasscom vice-president Sunil Mehta said,

"The pilot for the test is expected to begin in three weeks. We have the support of all the companies in BPO space and are working with 38 firms, including GE, Amex, HSBC, ICICIOnesource, WNS, IBM Daksh and Wipro Spectramind. The government has been supportive of the initiative, and going forward, we intend to make the certification test mandatory for people joining BPO. This is the first initiative for a nation-wide test supported by Nasscom,"

The pilot testing will be launched in tier one city Delhi and tier two Jaipur. Efforts for certification have been underway since July 2004.

The test is designed primarily for entry level candidates and zeros in on skills crucial for most call center and transaction processing jobs: English skills, typing and computer skills, processing skills, and even personality attributes.

It is expected to cut recruitment costs by as much as 40% - 50% since BPO companies would then only need to interview those who passed the test. On the candidates’ part, this also saves on time, effort, and resources. Passing the test is rewarded with certification as well as increased chances of hiring. Currently, only 5 out of 100 BPO applicants make it to the actual job offer.

The English skills test requires candidates to take a voice test sent over the Internet as an audio file. The written test will be given in multiple choice components on the lines of competitive exams. These are available throughout the year for a nominal fee. Currently, Nasscom is arranging for a governing council to conduct the tests across India, consisting of members from the industry and the academia

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