Career in call centre

Hero Mindmine (HM), a subsidiary of Hero Corporate Service Limited of India, organised a roundtable in Banani on career in call centres in Bangladesh recently.
Abullah H Kafi, vice president of ASOCIO, Sumon Ahmed Sabbir, managing director of BDCOM Online, Hasan Bipul, senior sub editor of daily Jai Jai Din, Bikash Kaul, zonal manager of Hero Mindmine Institute and Shakil Jawad Rahim, chief executive officer of Bangladesh Out Sourcing Centre attended the roundtable to weigh career prospects of call centres in the country.
Hero Mindmine had earlier launched a training institute in Dhaka for those who want to enhance employability and communication skills in business process outsourcing (BPO) and call centres.
At the roundtable, Abdullah H Kafi said the first and foremost requirement for a call centre representative is proficiency in English.
"At present, we have small number of call centres with English medium students working there as part-timers. If we want to establish it as a profession we have to persuade Bengali medium students to enhance their proficiency in English."
Kafi requested HM Institute not to attract youths with exciting advertisements. HM should set an example by their training and making job opportunities so that youths get interested to come to this profession.
In the past some foreign institutions set up IT training centers. They did nothing but gave certificates to the trainees instead of getting them into jobs, Kafi added.
Exciting advertisements and lure of jobs mislead youths, he said.
Sumon Ahmed Sabbir stressed better internet service for the development of call centre business in Bangladesh as Internet is the most important thing call centres need.
He said he had taken an initiative to start call centers few years ago. As they did not have fiber optic cables at that time, they tried to start it with Vsat but to no avail.
Sabbir thinks the problems have not been solved yet. "We are linked with one fiber optic submarine cable and the connection gets snapped twice a month on an average."
Hasan Bipul from the Jai Jai Din said it would be a great challenge for HM to establish call centers as a recognised profession.
Shakil Jawad from Bangladesh Out Sourcing said they have already started up some call centres with 60 percent of the employees from Bengali medium.
He said he was happy with the performance of the Bengali medium employees who need more training. And HM is giving them training to become more efficient and professional.
Bikash Kaul of Hero Mindmine Institute said they started operation in Bangladesh to develop skill of people for call centres. HM did not come here for any short-term business. Call centres have enormous potential in Bangladesh, Bikash said.
Bikash said HM trained over 20,000 call centre agents in India. The courses of HM are recognised by top international BPO (business process outsourcing) Institution.
HM has a contract with globally recognised BCI (BPO Certification Institution) Texas, USA. And HM is the sole director of the courses of BCI in Asia.
Hero Mindmine launched a call centre training institute in Dhaka on November 20.
Windmill Education Service Ltd is a sister concern of Bangladesh Windmill Group. It is the master franchisee of Hero Mindmine in Bangladesh.