Bytes Outsource Services, outsourcing service provider and a division of Bytes Technology Group, has successfully hosted 28 previously disadvantaged and three physically disabled learners who graduated as part of its contact centre training programme this year.
All have now secured gainful employment at Bytes. This programme has allowed for utilisation of the skills gained, thereby offering a mutually beneficial empowerment programme.
The programme led the learners through 38 days' training followed by hands-on experience at Bytes Outsource Services contact centres, and was based on the National Certificate in Contact Centre Support at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 2.
“The contact centre industry is growing rapidly and we need to develop the skills and resources to ensure continuous availability of appropriately skilled people,” says Rhona Wolmarans, national HR manager at Bytes Outsource Services. “This is rapidly becoming a knowledge worker industry where contact centres regularly recruit, train and cross-skill agents, particularly in the large centres in industries with high customer volumes such as banking, insurance and the network service providers; areas where we have a strong presence.”
Bytes Outsource Services' ongoing skills programme focuses on the requisite skills, knowledge, values and any other necessary attributes for graduates to effectively contribute to contact centre operations while providing learners with an appropriate platform to explore their potential and graduates with a career path as they progress out of the programme.
The National Certificate in Contact Centre Support at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 2 allows learners to work towards a nationally recognised qualification.
“The qualification allows both those in formal education and those already employed in contact centres access due to its flexibility and it has building blocks that can be developed further and will lead to a more defined contact centre career path at various NQF levels,” says Wolmarans. “It has also proven to be a highly successful tool for us to grow the skills pool on which we can draw to feed our growing contact centre business.”
Besides providing the broad knowledge and skills required for agents to gain access to and progress through the industry, the training also ensures a place for learners who were previously disadvantaged or were unable to complete their schooling and therefore denied access to further education and training.
Bytes Outsource Services ensured its learners gained a broad spectrum of knowledge and experience through the framework, which allows access to several career options: call centre agent, supervisor, telesales clerk, client services clerk, quality assurance, administration, IT, and contact centre management.
“We partnered with a number of service providers to bring this training to our learner graduates,” says Wolmarans, “and we are proud that we could also include three physically disabled learners in the programme. The training was concluded with workplace experience that supports the credits learners require to graduate and worked as a valuable feeder programme into some of our national contact centres where graduates have already embarked on their career paths.”
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