Saurashtra ready for a brush with BPOs

This would be good news for students in Saurashtra who would like to join BPO companies. Industry and academia in Rajkot are joining hands to attract BPO firms in the city.

Both feel the demand for outsourcing will rise in the region, once industries such as engineering, auto-parts manufacturing and petroleum — currently in the expansion phase — establish themselves. The Saurashtra University is gearing up to produce future tech professionals for a potentially large-sized BPO industry in the region.

The university is preparing course programmes required for the industry, such as voice-modulation, accent, language, personality development and software which would commence next year. The students will be provided practical know-how with the help of already established BPO companies in Ahmedabad.

“We’re trying to build future tech-professionals in our university for the growing industry so that students need not venture out of the region for similar jobs,” SU vice-chancellor Dr Kamlesh Joshipura told ET. He said the industries in Saurashtra have been complaining about the scarcity of skilled personnel for several years. And feels the era may now be nearing an end.

Joshipura said the industry has been growing at a significant rate, and this will increase the demand for skilled BPO personnel in the near future. There are also plans to offer short-term courses in five most demanding faculties—management, engineering, law and economics. Initially, the courses will be made available on self-finance basis.
With several BPO companies coming in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, Rajkot is also trying to attract these companies.

The city is widely known for its heavy engineering and auto part exports, but it doesn’t have enough English speaking people. The university strongly feels the requirement of building skilled personnel for this growing sector. The university has also joined hands with the chamber of commerce to invite BPO companies to set up shop in Rajkot. However, the chamber has been preparing plans to attract the established BPO firms.

A chamber official said, “We’re surveying various available companies and are persuading them to set up foothold in the city.” Earlier, the university had tied up with few industries from ceramic, engineering, agro-products and so on to provide skilled personnel as per the industry requirements. Saurashtra has a large number of small-sector industries but is lacking professionals.