
We're thinking 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - only at call centres
Published: 19 August 2003 07:25 GMT
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.
We provide BPO, software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure and management services. Exposure to BPO services, insurance or offshoring activity ...
With a focus on offshore BPO/CRM and BLM solutions you will identify, qualify and tender for projects of varying value. Business Development Manager ...
Candidates must be savvy with (Indian) offshore model, be new business focussed and must be able to work in the UK without sponsorship. My client is ...
Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.
Power Solutions Article: High-Availability Virtualization with Dell EqualLogic Arrays...
Power Solutions Article:Â Power Solutions Article: Getting Started with Microsoft...
Customer Case Study:Â A L Filters
Solution Brief: Dell Equalogic PS Series Can Offer Robust, High-Availability Infrastructure...
Stories from the web...
Copyright © 2008 CBS Interactive Limited. All rights reserved. Top of page
Naked CIO Naked CIO: Social networks are useless for finding a job 'Quantity over quality' approach poisoning professional networks
Peter Cochrane Peter Cochrane's Blog: Uneconomics We must move away from short-termism to prevent next economic crisis