Business Education

ICTA conducts training for BPO industry team leaders

The first batch of BPO Team Leaders underwent training in the Certified BPO Team Leader Level Programme (CBTL-1) funded under the ICT Capacity Building Programme (ICBP) implemented by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka which is a US$5.2 million initiative to provide a short-term boost to private sector ICT firms in increasing capacity in the Industry.

The programme was conducted in October at the Trans Asia Hotel with 22 participants representing leading BPO companies in the island which included representatives from Amba Research, HelloCorp, Vishwa BPO (a Hemas subsidiary), WNS, RR Donnelley Global BPO, Timex, Quantum, Metropolitan, Quick Accountant and InfoMate Ltd, (a JKH subsidiary).

The training was facilitated by Chetan Kosla of (Quality Assurance Institute) QAI India who is the Head for QAI's ITES-BPO Practice - South India region and is a Six Sigma Master Black belt with over 2,500 training hours.

He has extensive experience in the industry having worked in Accenture and other leading BPOs and is currently engaged with consulting for COPC(r), Six Sigma and process improvement initiatives for clients such as AOL, Sutherland, Wipro BPO, Transworks, Deutsche Bank, Capital One and HCL BPO.

The rigorous training programme which lasted for up to 10 hours a day, with participants having to put in 3-4 hours homework concluded with an examination.

Successful participants would receive a NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies, India) certification which is highly valued in the global BPO industry.

The course focused on the principles of managing operations and quality; usage of metrics; SLA and productivity management; relationship planning, people, processes and performance and people management.

The course was highly interactive involving discussions, case studies as well as individual and group exercises.

The programme would contribute significantly to raising the standard and service levels of Sri Lankan BPO companies and would be followed by other sessions of CBTL-1, CBTL-2 and the Certified BPO Quality Analyst Programme in the near future.

ESOFT signs as Silver Sponsor of EDEX 2008

ESOFT signed on as the Silver Sponsor for EDEX 2008 - Sri Lanka's largest Higher Education and Careers Expo.

The exchanging of documents was done recently at the EDEX Secretariat Office. EDEX is the largest, most comprehensive, and established higher educational and careers exhibition in Sri Lanka, and ESOFT considers this as a partnership between two Titans.

EDEX 2008, promises not only to live up to the expectations of its predecessors, but supersede them, with new addition and bigger and better ideas.

We believe that actively participating in an event of this magnitude would further contribute to the betterment of our Corporate Social Responsibility, by counselling students in making their academic and professional education decisions, thereby facilitating gainful employment for them in the near future.

When ESOFT opened its doors in the year 2000, we started out by offering professional courses at a grass roots level.

However, we placed the emphasis on delivering quality education and our clients quickly realized the value that we provide, thereby catapulting us to the top in the Industry, ESOFT Chairman Dr. Dayan Rajapaksa said.

Today, we are the Leader in preparing students for the BCS professional examinations as well as the BIT External Degree examinations conducted by the University of Colombo.

ESOFT is also one of only a handful of organizations to be accredited by the University of Moratuwa for conducting classes for their soon-to-be-launched BIT External Degree.

ESOFT has a growing branch network which consists of Kandy, Kurunegala, Battaramulla, Kotahena, Anuradhapura, Piliyandala, and Negombo.

Intel spearheads education initiatives in Sri Lanka

Selects Sri Rahula Balika Maha Vidyalaya as model school:

Intel and the Ministry of Education felicitated 75 teachers from the Western Province at an event held at the Auditorium of the Ministry of Education. The teachers completed a 60-hour intensive training programme organised by Intel Teach in collaboration with the Ministry of Education under the Secondary Education Modernisation Project which aims to integrate technology into the teaching and learning process to improve the same.

Intel also announced the selection of Sri Rahula Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Malabe as a Model School for implementing the Intel Teach programme successfully.

Secretary to the Ministry of Education Ariyaratne Hewage, said "I am happy to note that many of the teachers of Western Province who were trained as Master Teachers under Intel Teach programme have completed teaching their colleagues at schools and earned their Master Teacher certification.

I extend my sincere gratitude to all those teachers and strongly believe that they would use technology in their classrooms to improve the teaching and learning process in the schools and prepare our future generation for the 21st Century.

The Intel Teach programme uses a "train the trainer" model to provide both face-to-face and online instruction to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms.

Teachers create lesson plans that can be immediately implemented and that meet local and national education goals and standards. Earlier Intel had launched the Intel Skoool Learning and Teaching Technology program in Sri Lanka, to mark Universal Children's Day.

All these announcements are aimed at fulfilling Intel's latest Education initiatives in Sri Lanka in addition to Intel Teach and Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) related activities. Intel Skoool(tm) is a programme introduced to provide online learning resources designed to help secondary-level students understand and explore key concepts of mathematics and science.

In Sri Lanka, the online curriculum will be hosted on the Ministry of Education's (MoE) SchoolNet, under the provisions of a Memorandum of Understanding between the MoE and Intel.

The interactive educational content for Mathematics and Science has been aligned to classroom grades in Sri Lanka and is provided by the Intel Innovation Centre in Ireland. The English version of Intel Skoool will initially be available in Sri Lanka with plans in place to introduce the curriculum in local languages in the near future.

While Skoool resources help students understand and explore key mathematics and science concepts thereby improving learning, the program is also useful for teachers, as its tools and resources can be integrated into a learning plan.

Skoool is designed to exemplify the benefits of high quality multi-media technology and to encourage wider use of these technologies to advance student education around the world. By providing the tools and resources that can be adapted to teaching and learning, Skoool capitalises on the passion among students for digital media.