Indian call centre agents drilled by former UK teachers

A team of retired teachers from the UK is in India training call centre staff, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

Led by a retired teacher from Glasgow, Scotland, the team will conduct general knowledge classes for the Indian workers to teach them how to handle UK customer calls.

The call centre agents will not only learn about differences in accents around the UK but also the cultural variations and political make-up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They will also learn how to pronounce names of places such as Kirkcudbright and Milngavie.

The teachers have been recruited by call centre provider Oceans Connect and are based in Pune, India. Teachers with vast experience in British classrooms were employed to conduct the lessons based on "strict, traditional teaching techniques and values", said the report.

Oceans Connect’s training manager, Milly Sandeep, said the students are picking up the accents well, especially the Scottish one, according to the report.

One teacher was quoted as saying that several students already have "flawless" English, "with many having vocabularies far superior than many Glaswegians".

A recent survey has shown that over half of call centre staff will quit because they cannot handle the job stresses, which include unlearning old speech habits and picking up new ones.

Business outsourcing sent to India from US and other firms will help the country soak up more than half the world's offshore business outsourcing revenue this year, according to analyst house Gartner. The country's revenue from BPO (business process outsourcing) will grow from slightly under $1bn in 2002 to $1.2bn in 2003 and will represent 66 per cent of the offshore BPO market.