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Waiting for a second chance
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The recession in the call centre industry has spelt doom for most finishing schools. Those who have managed to stay on there are hoping for a turn in the tide.
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ON CALL: The recession has hit the related industries badly. — Photo: Satish H
A LOT of downstream businesses flourished as an offshoot to the call centre and BPO (business process outsourcing) boom in Hyderabad, until recently.
One such thriving trade was the finishing schools, which claimed to groom the just-out-of-college graduate aspiring for call centre jobs to help them embrace MNC culture without difficulty. These finishing schools are now almost finished thanks to the massive recession in the call centre industry.Going by market research statistics, there were about 40 operational finishing schools in 2000-01 in the city. The latest findings reveal that there are less than a dozen in business now. While most finishing schools have shut shop, some of the existing ones have diversified their areas of operation and switched from the core area of grooming. Only a handful have grimly hung on, hoping for things to get better.
Those that have closed down include, Groomfast - the right place, School of European Etiquette, Prim-n-Propah and Osmania University's ELTC Call Centre training institute. During boom time, each of these schools had over hundreds of candidates enrolled. And the minimum charge for an entry-level one-month course, ranged between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 15,000.
Others, who had contracts with HR managers of MNCs for placement of their students, were charging rates as high as Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 75,000.
CPI Intellisoft, which was primarily a finishing school, has now diversified operations to function as an institute to churn out trainers for the whole country so that they can fit into any MNC with the skills learnt here.
"From being call trainers to assistant managers in MNCs, our students - mostly graduates, are equipped with managerial skills to be as effective as MBAs from reputed institutes," says CPI Intellisoft director Omkar Saran Agrawal. The Trainers and Managers module is a six-month course and costs Rs. 15,000.
"Students who have finished their module can vouch for the fact that one need not be an MBA to become an efficient manager," he continues. Despite diversification, CPI Intellisoft continues its Call Centre training module, which is of one-month duration and costs Rs 5,000. "The situation will get better with arrival of more MNCs like, 24/7, Emphasis, Spectramind and Web Help that are likely to begin operations by the beginning of next year," says Agarwal.
Agreeing with him, Professional Protocol's (an etiquette development institute), centre head Rummy Sharma says, "It is true that several finishing schools took customers for a ride saying that they would be prepared for international Call Centres, when their trainers did not even know what a call centre looked like." These are the ones that had to down their shutters, he adds.
A lot of candidates who had undergone "corporate grooming" training at Professional Protocol are now placed in companies like Oracle, HSBC, GE and Deloitte Consulting. "But now we have focussed our attention on developing international business etiquette and training on cross-cultural sensitivity for five nations - US, UK, Japan, Germany and France, for people interested in visiting these nations," Sharma adds hoping that the business of finishing schools makes a comeback for the better.
A study conducted by the Manufacturer's Association for Information Technology (MAIT) reveals "the Call Centre industry, which had an employment level of about 16,000 in 2000-01 will grow to 2,70,000 by 2008 and the boom time is expected to have an elongated shelf life." With that finishing schools will surely get a second chance. Hopefully they should get their fundas right the second time around.
SOUVIK CHOWDHURY
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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