India steps up offshore staff quality control
India has finally started executing plans for a national entrance exam for BPO candidates. This is in line with the measures the government has taken to boost the quality of graduates who would be manning the country’s call center and IT posts.
The exam – the Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) – was developed in partnership with Hewitt Associates and would be held annually. It is aimed at measuring skills and competence in the following areas:
- listening and keyboard skills
- verbal ability
- spoken English
- comprehension and writing
- office software usage
- numerical and analytical skills
- concentration and accuracy
A 3-month pilot testing would be run in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai to cover 36 key IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in its scope. An estimated 15,000 graduates are expected to take the exam this year. A national implementation of the examination will follow successful completion of the pilot. Nasscom is counting on a 50% cost savings for the sourcing and recruitment industry as a result of the NAC.
Nasscom holds the industry standard assessment and certification program in the hopes of transforming a “trainable” workforce into one that is employable.
Currently, 350,000 employees populate the country’s booming offshore outsourcing industry but this figure belies the high attrition rates brought about by cutthroat competition for skilled workers. This has raised concerns over the supply of competent BPO staff – with the demand expected to grow to a million come 2009.
The NAC comes as a timely response to pressures on India’s IT and BPO industry over issues of data theft in call centers, as brought to light in sting operations by Australian and UK journalists.
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