New Delhi: The NASSCOM Assessment of Competence – a capability assessment programme for potential employees in the BPO industry, is all set for nationwide rollout from November 2006.
The IT trade body, NASSCOM expects that over a lakh young job aspirants will appear for NAC in the first year of its national rollout, NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik said.
About eight states – Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar and Sikkim are expected to launch NAC by the end of November.
The NAC is aimed at addressing the talent shortage faced by the industry, he said. "The aim is to create a continuous pipeline of talent by 'transforming' workforce into an 'employable' workforce".
“The pilot project for NAC was completed in June this year and about 6,000 candidates took the test in the select states,” Karnik said.
According to NASSCOM, only 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of college students are suitable or employment in the IT and BPO industry.
It is estimated that by 2010, India could have a possible manpower shortfall of 500,000 people by 2010. Of this, the BPO gap would be around 3.5 lakh.
NAC is an online test for assessing aptitude of a candidate on seven different skill sets including listening and keyboard skills, verbal ability, spoken English, comprehension and writing ability, office software usage, numerical and analytical skills, and concentration and accuracy.
"Our aim is to tap talent from all parts of the country and initially, NAC will be conducted in eight cities and further extended to 30 cities," Karnik said, adding this move would increase the reach of ITES-BPO industry to tier II and III cities.
“It would also provide insights into the real training and development needs of talent, which would help companies, governments and universities to develop customised talent development initiatives and programmes,” he added.
"One of our key focus areas during the last year has been to build NAC as an industry certification that integrates industry requirements with university and college courses on the lines of SAT, GMAT and GRE examinations," Karnik said.
He said these tests would be technically evaluated by a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) instituted by NASSCOM and evaluate the statistical validity, robustness and reliability of the tests of each consortium.
The inputs will then be incorporated in the final selection of the partner for NAC s national roll out. An independent Governing Council will also be set up by NASSCOM for overseeing NAC as a full fledged programme, which will act as the supreme authority in all matters concerning NAC, Karnik said.
Hewitt Associates is the Program Manager for the NAC and is responsible for designing and rolling out NAC on behalf of NASSCOM and Indian ITES-BPO players.
The NAC pilot-testing phase was launched in August 2005 and has seen participation of 22 ITES-BPO companies including Accenture, Amex India, Cognizant Technology Services, Convergys India, Dell India Services, Genpact and IBM Daksh.
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