Posts Tagged ‘industry’
More Endeavours to Improve Employability
Every day, more and more institutions are waking up to the fact that students passing out from their portals are not equipped enough to contribute to the industry. What they are lacking is employability skills. The institutions are worried because a dip in campus placements reflects poorly on their capabilities. They know that the best way to attract students is to show them a long list of successfully placed candidates. In order to ensure the development of soft skills, they are tying up with companies, training institutes and universities like IGNOU. Among the soft skills, effective communication is given the most importance as most students are weak in this area. Click here to read a report about it.
New Report on Hiring Activity in India
Naukri.com has released its monthly report on hiring activities in India based on location, industry and experience for the month of August 2009. The report gives us a general overview of hiring activity in the major cities in India and looks into requirements across various industries. Compared to last year, hiring activity has seen a nosedive this year but figures are by and large maintaining stability. With the improvement of the economy, we can look forward to a spurt in hiring across profiles.
The sector under the limelight when it comes to growth is banking and financial services which was hit hard when the recession struck. It is good to see progress in this sphere and we can be hopeful of it regaining its lost ground. Among the cities, Bangalore saw a rise in hiring activity while Mumbai stayed stable. Other major IT hubs such as Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Chennai saw a marginal fall.
Check out the detailed report by visiting this link.
New Universities to Build a Strong Talent Pool
The need for increased enrollment in higher education has never been felt more as India grapples with the lack of quality talent in the professional sphere. In order to introduce more students to advanced learning and to hone their skills, the government plans to set up 735 additional universities all over the country. Deviating from the norm of a University being a space for all kinds of courses, the new universities will feature several exclusive ones that will cater to select programmes only. We can safely assume that most of these select courses will be job-oriented and in line with the current and upcoming industry demands.
While it is good to know that more people are being exposed to higher education and important skills, such a large number of new institutions can also be a cause for concern. It is not enough to set up a centre of learning; we need able people to guide the students effectively. Finding quality faculty for all these institutions will be a tough ask and we know that sub-standard faculty can turn the whole noble scheme upside down. Care should be taken to design the curriculum in a way that will cater to not only current openings but new developments in future as well. Here’s hoping that the government will use discretion and not rush to get the new institutions up and running.
“Target BPO” Launched
“Target BPO”, the one-of-a-kind assessment test is now available for all of you to take right from the comfort of home. This is the most compact and focussed test designed to assess all BPO specific skills. In just 45 minutes, you are guaranteed a thorough evaluation of your reading, writing, listening, speaking and comprehension skills which are highly sought-after by the industry. Our experienced evaluators will make sure that an in-depth evaluation report will be sent to you within just three days of your taking the test.
In addition to the comprehensive evaluation, you will also receive valuable suggestions on how to improve and get ahead. Our long association with the industry will make sure that you get great exposure as we will forward your CV to top recruiters once you sign up and take our test. Your credentials, coupled with our assessment, will put you in a different league altogether.
So sign up and take the test now. It is absolutely free.
Look Before You Leap
Undoubtedly, new courses that are being introduced in various colleges all over India are bringing in a whole new attitude to job hunting and a variety of new skills for students to equip themselves with. Several times in this blog I have talked about the necessity of these courses and how important it is to look beyond the obvious and explore new avenues. However, we need to take a look at the dark side of this as well where education and business get intertwined.
Many of these upcoming courses are job oriented and require extensive exposure to the industry, good infrastructure and knowledgeable faculty. Riding on the wave of students waking up to these new opportunities, institutions are springing up every other day in an effort to cash in on the awareness and make money. These institutions offer diplomas and degrees in unconventional courses and promise much to the students. However, most of these colleges are set up in a hurry with very little consideration towards what is required to handle the courses in the right way. So after spending a year or two in a college you might still find yourself ill-equipped to carry out the responsibilities you will be entrusted with.
It is advisable therefore to know more about an institution before joining it. It might be offering the courses you want to take but does it have all that it takes to make a success story out of you? Talk to former students of the college, look through its placement record and try to gather as much information as possible. Go for it once you are reasonably satisfied.
Go For Your Dreams With “Target BPO”
On the threshold of professional life, all of us hope for that big break that will get our careers off to great starts and put us on the right tracks. We want to work for reputed concerns possessing tremendous amounts of experience in their domains since we can learn all about our areas of interest and become the best in no time. If you are looking for a big break with a major BPO but are not sure of what to do, SkillSpark offers you the perfect solution. Our extensive industry experience coupled with domain expertise has enabled us to develop our first big product-”Target BPO”.
“Target BPO” is different from every other course and evaluation in the market in a big way. It doesn’t put you through unnecessary sections and irrelevant assessment. It is compact and focussed, thus concentrating only on BPO specific skills. We will test your reading, writing, speaking, listening and your ability to collect and process information. Within a short span of an hour, we will put all your BPO specific employability skills to a comprehensive test. With “Target BPO”, it’s all about maximum evaluation in minimum time.
Our efficient and experienced evaluation will make sure that you get your results within 3 days of taking the test. Your evaluation will not just be a report card that will let you know the marks you have scored but elaborate feedback on every section and valuable suggestions on how to improve.
With SkillSpark, you are also assured of maximum exposure to the industry in addition to thorough testing. We will collect your resumes when you sign up for “Target BPO” and forward them along with your test results to major BPOs who are looking for talent. We are offering our services absolutely free.
So if you have the potential and a dream and are searching for a way to realize it, “Target BPO” is here to lead you to success.
Onward to Online Training
For the industry, training is an important aspect alongwith hiring. As educational institutions usually offer nothing more than theoretical knowhow, companies have to take up the responsibility of grooming new recruits and getting them ready for all they have to face in the corporate world. Therefore, on top of the expenses associated with hiring, there comes the additional burden of training expenses. While profile-related specific training can be best learned from seniors and qualified corporate trainers, more and more companies are looking at alternate means of training when it comes to general training such as communication, ways of dealing with clients and using certain popular software.
A solution in this regard is online training which is emerging as a productive as well as cost-effective solution. With the internet becoming an indispensable part of our lives and the multitude of tools available online, it is no wonder that online training is gaining some serious ground. With the advent of online training, the debate that is doing the rounds is whether it will completely replace face-to-face teaching in the long run. Before attempting to answer that question, a thorough examination of the potential of online training is pertinent. More posts to come on this exciting field.
Explore, Learn and Decide
Many of us, prior to looking for a job, have the impression that whatever we are doing in our classrooms and laboratories are exactly what we will be doing in professional life. In a way we view work as an extension of our student life. There is no denying that our education is equipping us with certain skills and theories which will be put to practice once we step into the professional sphere, but there are a lot of other things we need to know and be prepared for. As long as we were students, we never really knew what deadlines mean in the industry, how critical a project and its timely execution can be and how quickly we need to think and improvise. Often our services might be required for something apart from our projects and it will be expected from us that we adapt and deliver.
As the course comes to an end and thoughts of starting work dawn, it is important to research and get to know more about the functioning of different companies. A good idea about the structures of various organizations, big and small, will go a long way in giving aspirants an idea about what to expect. It is important, in my opinion, to look at the various profiles, develop an understanding of the core and added responsibilities, get to know the management and explore opportunities to grow and learn. Working for big companies will enable you to boast of a name and expose you to an assembly-line style of work but ascent will take time and the work can get monotonous. New and smaller companies can be a little disorganized and might want employees to figure things out on their own but offer flexibility and quick growth.
A decision has to be taken regarding what kind of exposure and work-experience would one like before taking up the first job. Once that decision is made, a lot of things become clear.
Attrition Rates: Nightmares of the Industry.
If we are to talk about some of the problems ailing the industry in India, one of the first things that come to mind is attrition. Though its presence is felt in every area, the BPO industry is seen to be suffering the most. High attrition rates have become common in BPOs and HRs need to come up with effective solutions to tackle this problem.
When freshers join a BPO, the company has to spend a considerable amount of time and money in training the new recruits. To enable the employees to communicate well with foreign customers, they are provided voice training, accent training and other tips and tricks of communicating over phone. The candidates need to know a lot about the company and its products as well. So after all the training, if employees leave for other opportunities, it’s back to square one for the companies with another bunch of new employees. Thus bringing the attrition rate down is a priority for most players in the industry.
Some effective strategies to tackle this could be to give employees a sense of job-security, offer them attractive rewards for good performance and make the environment of the offices fun. Work can get stressful at times and various recreational activities can be arranged so that the employees can look forward to a lot more other than routine work.
The attrition rates have lessened over the last year (25-28% on an average) compared to earlier years (55-60%) but that’s largely due to recession. The sooner the companies take effective remedial measures, the better.
Gaining Momentum by Looking At New Courses
While established universities are looking to enhance their appeal and reaching out to the new generation by introducing new courses, new universities are relying on these courses to gain a foothold for themselves. In this time of diversity when the industry is coming up with new profiles to cope with new responsibilities and is constantly re-inventing itself, specialized courses that prepare students for these new posts are gaining ground. Upcoming and newly inaugurated universities know that established universities, owing to bureaucratic problems, will take a while to set up the necessary infrastructure to run these courses, so there is nothing like starting with the courses in demand.
Nithm, an autonomous institute jointly established by the Govt. of AP and the Govt. of India, is offering courses like Diploma in Travel Agency and Tour Operators, Diploma in Facilities Management, Event Management, Food Production and Restaurant and Catering Services and Housekeeping and Tour Guiding programmes. Such courses will definitely see plenty of takers as there aren’t too many institutions in India offer such a wide array of Hospitality and Tourism courses. What is important though, is that capable and knowledgeable people are selected to run these courses. Since the courses are new, getting experienced faculty will be difficult. Let us see how Nithm and other institutes go about it.