Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Trainees start looking for jobs in call centers
THE “good turnout” of the first batch of call center trainees at the University of Cebu (UC) training center for communication skills enhancement proved the industry’s need for fluent English speakers, an official from the private-sector led Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-it) said.
“After conducting the first training, we are convinced that there is a need (for training). It’s just a matter of communicating it to the public,” Cedf-it executive director Bonifacio Belen said.
Belen said that 98 percent of the first batch of 17 trainees, comprising mostly students and professionals, has started to apply as call center agents, and expressed optimism that they will be hired.
Cedf-it, together with UC, tapped the services of People Support to conduct several trainings for UC students, faculty members and walk-in applicants who wish to enhance their communication skills.
Agreement
Belen said the fast growth of the call center industry pushed them to sign another memorandum of agreement with Convergys and UC to hold more training sessions.
He said though that the partnership with Convergys will not compete with People Support since both serve different purposes.
“We’ll manage to avoid competition between the two in a negative sense. People Support will basically train the UC students, teachers and outsiders, and UC will embed the call center training in their curriculum. Convergys, however, will educate the entire UC administration, faculty, staff and students so they will better appreciate the industry,” Belen said.
Embedded
He added that once the industry is better appreciated, many will be encouraged to join.
Belen said UC will be the pilot university in the promotion of the call center industry because the training will be embedded in their curriculum, thus ensuring their graduates are proficient in English.
He said the university will also adopt two public schools to train public school English teachers and their students.
Belen revealed that several call centers, like Teletech, have already initiated talks with Cedf-it to allow them to tap other Cedf-it-member schools for the same project.
Replicate
“Our members will learn a lot from the best practices we have with UC and hopefully, they will be able to replicate it,” he said.
Cedf-it is now geared towards allowing a broad relationship between the academe and the call center industry.
The training for the second batch will still be in the UC Banilad campus on Nov. 6. The third batch will have their training on Nov. 24 and the last batch will have theirs on Dec. 4.
Belen said the university is targeting 80 graduates before December. UC is set to organize a jobs fair by December. (MMM )
