Effective Tele in educational tie-up with Gujarat

THE IT VALLEY - PART III

In a move that will provide the much-required boost to the growth of information technology enabled services (ITeS) and business process outsourcing (BPO) in the state, the US-based Effective Teleservices has entered into an agreement with the government of Gujarat to set up an educational institute for training persons exclusively in these domains.

This is perhaps the first time in the country that a state government has tied up with an IT company to set up an educational institute exclusively for training ITeS and BPO professionals.

"In the first stage, we will focus on voice purity and accent mutualisation at the institute, which will come up at the Creative Infocity. But at a later stage, students will be taught on medical transcriptioning and BPO. Effective Teleservices has taken an undertaking that the first 1,000 graduates of the institute will be absorbed into the company," said Jim Iyoob, project director, Effective Teleservices.

He said the call centre of the company has embarked on an expansion plan and the institute will go a long way in helping rein in trained professionals.

"If there is still any spillover, they can be taken up by several other BPO and ITeS companies that are coming up in the state," Iyoob said.

J N Singh, secretary, science and technology, government of Gujarat, said the state government will provide space either at the Industrial Technical Institute (ITI), Gandhinagar, or at the Centre of Excellence in Gujarat Informatics.

Iyoob said the certificates for the students on completion of the course will be a joint certification of the Gujarat government and Effective Teleservices.

Singh, however, added that a pilot is being worked out in this regard.

Most training and education of ITeS and BPO staff in the state is on a private basis with companies recruiting personnel and then training them to suit their needs.

Also, there are some educational institutes which train people in language, communication skills and the like, but no comprehensive educational institute for training persons in the ITeS and BPO segment exists in the state.

Effective Teleservices Inc had inaugurated its first BPO contact centre in India at the Infocity a couple of months ago.

Effective Teleservices aims to recruit 1,000 more personnel in the next 12 months from 172 at present.

The company will provide voice data services to US-based clients, inbound and outbound calls, reporting, accepting data, higher end customised services are also being offered.