ITeS-BPO programme launched

Nasscom's Assessment of Competence (NAC) programme, an assessment-cum-certification programme for candidates who aspire to be a part of the ITeS-BPO industry will now be extended to Gujarat in collaboration with the Gujarat government.

Gujarat Informatics Ltd , the nodal agency of the state government, for promotion of information technology in the state, in association with Nasscom, will be the implementing agency for the NAC Test. NAC's foray into Gujarat is being done on a pilot basis and hence has a limit of 2,000 seats.

Under the programme, candidates pursuing their final year under-graduate course from any stream and those pursuing first year post graduate course from any stream would be eligible to apply for the NAC test which will be held at Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

An official from GIL said that the initiative was aimed at creating a pool of talent in the rapidly growing ITeS-BPO industry in the state.

"This will be done by continuously assessing candidates on key skills through a national standard assessment, thus making it easier for firms to screen candidates. This will then be tied in to training and development efforts to help more candidates become competent to work in the industry, " said the official.

NAC pilot testing started in August 2005 at Rajasthan. NAC is presently being rolled out in partnership with multiple states in India. Apart from Gujarat, other states where NAC will be rolled out include Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu among other 25-30 states.

In the coming few months, NAC is expected to be administered on a fix calendar basis 4-6 times a year; with multiple states signing on for any of the given dates.

Following the test, a job fair for the NAC participants on the basis of their performance in the test would be conducted where major Indian and global ITeS-BPO players would be present.

After its first NAC in Rajasthan, a job fair was conducted at Jaipur for candidates in November 2006 where eleven top ITeS-BPO companies participated in the job fair and some of them made offers to the candidates on the spot.