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NAC Tests in North East India
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February 19, 2008
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NASSCOM, the apex-body of IT software and service industry in India, recently organized NAC (NASSCOM Assessment of Competence) Test in the eight states of North East India from 17th Nov, 2007 to 23rd Dec, 2007 in phases.
What is a NAC test? My previous post “NAC Test - your passport to a BPO Job” elaborates on this. The focus of this topic is to find how each of the state participated in the NAC tests. For the future NAC Tests in North East, you can also use the data from this post to guess where the NAC Test is likely to be and who may be the contact persons.
Lets quickly get to the facts below, which says when the tests were held, how many candidates participated and where were the tests held:
From above, it is quite clear that level of participation in the tests was very low, despite majority of school/colleges in North East hill states being of English medium and also the eligibility for participation being very minimum: Graduate/PG/Final year Graduate students from any discipline could have appeared. For example, from Meghalaya only 500 candidates participated, despite having best of the English medium school/colleges in North East. While there is huge unemployment in North East India for lack of industries, close to 8 lakhs BPO job is up for grabs in next three years, (present BPO employee strength: 5.5 lakhs, employee requirement by 2010: 14 lakhs) if a NASSCOM McKinsey report-2005 is to be believed.
What is the reason of this low turn-out?
1.Lack of information dissemination: It may be because information regarding the NAC Test was not advertised properly.
2.Lack of awareness about employment opportunities in a BPO industry.
3.Lack of training institutes for preparing students for BPO industry.
While NASSCOM and the nodal state Govt. department needs to put emphasis to address the issue of information dissemination, may be the intellectuals and academicians would take effort to build more awareness about employment opportunities in a BPO industry. My previous posts:What is BPO?, How to find a BPO job, NAC Test - your passport to a BPO Job were directed towards this effort.
Do we have any training institutes for preparing students for BPO industry in North East?
Yes, we have two Hero Mindmine institute at Guwahati, which trains students for BPO industry:
Hero Mindmine, Dispur.
2nd Floor, Borah Comerical Complex,
Housing Stopage,Dr. Bhabanbra Nath Saikia Road,
Beltola, Guwahati (Assam)
Contact Person:Monalisa Goswami
Cell: 9864415405 , Email: rupanka_1970@sify.com, guwahat.dispur@heromindmine.com.
Hero Mindmine,Chandmari
169, GNB Road,
Chandmari,Guwahati (Assam)
Contact Person:Parag Jyoti.
For future NAC tests, following information about the nodal state Govt. departments in association of whom NASSCOM organized the Tests may help:
Arunachal:
Mr. Chau Dhanya Mungyak, Scientist-'B'
Department of IT and Science & Technology
Government of Arunachal Pradesh
Phone : 0360-2290833 (O), Tele-fax: 0360-2212934 (O), Mobile : 09436227753
Assam:
Sh. T.N.D. Sarmah
Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. (AMTRON)
Phone: 0361-2724221, Email: tnd.sarmah@amtron.in
Manipur:
1. Shri R. K. Gouri Singh, OSD
University & Higher Education Dept.
Govt. of Manipur, Mobile - 9856318195
2. Shri N. Deben, Sr. Sc. Officer
DST and IT Department, Govt. of Manipur
Landline:(0385-2454929 email: dstmanipur@nic.in
Meghalaya:
Mr. Wonshondro L Buam
Special Officer to Government of Meghalaya, Dept. of IT
Mobile: 09863043183, Email: wlbuam@rediffmail.com
Mizoram:
Mr. Rony Lallianmawia
System Engineer, Information & Communication Technology
Planning & Programme Implementation Department
Secretariat Block 'A', Top Floor, Government of Mizoram, Aizawl -796001
Cellphone: 0-9862322811, e-Mail ID: roniez@gmail.com, Landline: (0389) 2310888 / 2319637
Nagaland: Department of Information Technology.
1. Imsayuba Naga, Project Director (phone - 9436001704)
2. Chura Katiry, Program Officer (phone - 9436001376)
3. Director (ITTE), Directorate of ITTE (e-mail - dit-ngl@nic.in)
Phone (Off.) - 0370-2271470
Sikkim:
1. Mr. Rajesh Verma, Director, IT Department, Govt. of Sikkim
Tel: (03592)-202601 & Fax: 227426, Mobile: 9434186291, Email: vermar@nic.in
2. Mr. Tsering Samdup, Deputy Director, IT Department, Govt. of Sikkim, Tel: (03592)-202601, Fax:227426, Mobile: 9434179192, email: t.samdup@nic.in
3. Mr. Mihir Pradhan, Computer Operator, CIC, Namchi, Mobile: 9832070612
Tripura:
1. 0381-2324689 (Director, Higher Education)
2. 0381-2324327 (Director, Employment Services & Manpower Planning)
3. 0381-2355751 (Director, IT) Email: it.tripura@gmail.com
While at the apex NASSCOM level, the contact persons for NAC tests are as below:
1. Dr. Sandhya Chintala, Director – Education Initiatives
2. Nikhil Gupta, Senior Associate.
Email: sigites@nasscom.org.
Hope this post brings more employment to employment starved NE states.Labels: BPO |
posted by
Prasanta Bora on
February 19, 2008
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NAC Test - your passport to a BPO Job
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February 16, 2008
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This post is being made in sequel to my two previous posts: What is BPO? & How to find a BPO job. If you are new to the "BPO" concept, you may consider going through these two posts first. The focus of this post is on NAC test only.
If you are looking to join a BPO organization in India, there is a very good piece of news for you: While previously you had to sit for individual job tests held by different BPO firms, now a common test called NAC (NASSCOM Assessment of Competence) Test, will make it much simpler for you. And the scores made by you in this test will be valid for one year for most prominent BPO firms.
Approach of NAC Test is much akin to ATMA/MAT/CAT test, which are conducted for admissions to management institutes. The scores you make in these tests are valid for one year and the management institute themselves defines whether they would accept ATMA test or MAT test or CAT Test and what is the cut-off score acceptable to that particular institute.
Similarly the individual BPO firms would decide what cut-off NAC Test scores would be acceptable to them and whether you would need to undergo some other specific test. In other words, NAC test is meant to take away yours (and also the BPO Firms) trouble of appearing in those type of tests over and over again, which are universal to all BPO firms.
How & Why NAC Test evolved?
Indian BPO job-market is booming in every second. Number of ITES-BPO employees have grown from 415,000 in 2006 to 553,000 in 2007. According to a NASSCOM McKinsey report 2005, demand for ITES-BPO professionals by 2010 is estimated to be 14 lakhs.
Now how to get skilled manpower for this huge requirement of employees?
NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), the apex-body of IT software and service industry in India, have therefore through an intense participation of BPO industries launched this test, after running through pilot stages since from 2005.
Who is eligible to appear in this test:
Any Graduates, any Post-Graduates from any streams and also any students pursuing final year of graduation (any streams) can appear in this test.
How and when are this tests held:
NASSCOM organizes this test in association with state Govt. Authorities - mostly with Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the state Govt.
The tests have been rolled out only very recently - starting first one in Rajasthan in November 2006. To know when NAC Test would be held in your state, click on following link and than on your particular state in the India map shown: http://www.nac.nasscom.in/web/indiamap.aspx
How to apply:
Registration for the NAC Test is held at two stages:
1.0 After the NAC test is announced, you need to apply to that state govt. depart (in maximum cases, Department of Information Technology of your state govt.) which has been nominated as a nodal agent for the NASSCOM test. Thereafter, you would be given a UserID & Password.
2.0 With this UserID & Password, you need to log-in to http://www.nac.nasscom.in/web/indiamap.aspx corresponding to your state and enter your particulars.
How this test is beneficial to you?
With your scores in the test which is valid for one year, you would be able to apply to all major Indian BPO firms. Not only that, you would also be able to participate in the job fairs which is organised by NASSCOM after the test. Does not that sounds really nice?
What is the pattern of NAC Test:
NAC test is a 2 ½ hour (145 minutes) test and it consists of seven test modules: Speaking, Listening, Analytical and Quantitative Reasoning, Writing (multiple choice), Writing (essay), Learning Ability and Keyboard Skills. Let us go into details on what each module consists of:
Speaking:
Duration: 25 minutes.
No. of Questions: Read one given passage and Speak on one given topic.
In this test, 5 minutes would be given to candidates to prepare for the test. The candidates would be assessed for prosody (i.e. speech elements such as intonation, pitch, rate, loudness, rhythm, etc.), voice clarity, fluency and grammar.
It is held over Telephone/Computer based software.
Listening:
Duration: 25 minutes.
No. of Questions: 30.
In this test, Conversation in neutral English is played on computer followed by questions based on the conversation.
It is held online.
Analytical and Quantitative Reasoning:
Duration: 20 minutes.
No. of Questions: 30.
In this test, Analytical and logical reasoning questions like puzzles, data sufficiency, inductive and deductive logic will have to be solved by the candidate. Numerical reasoning will include percentages, averages, profit and loss type of questions.
It is held online or pen-paper.
Writing (multiple choice):
Duration: 20 minutes.
No. of Questions: 30.
In this test, grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension etc. is checked.
It is held online or pen-paper.
Writing (essay):
Duration: 20 minutes.
No. of Questions: 1-2 short essays.
In this test, content, relevance, grammar and vocabulary is checked.
It is held online or pen-paper.
Learning Ability:
Duration: 20 minutes.
No. of Questions: 10.
This test is conducted to see if a person has the ability to learn new things and retain them.
It is held online or pen-paper.
Keyboard Skill:
Duration: 5 minutes.
No. of Items: 2.
This test is conducted to checks if the candidate is comfortable in using the keyboard and also if the candidate can enter data into fields accurately. The test has two parts:
i) Free-Flow: Candidate is asked to replicate/re-type a passage in the given time. It assesses candidate’s speed and accuracy.
ii) Data Entry. Candidate is asked to type alphanumeric content into text fields provided. It assesses candidate’s accuracy.
It is a Computer based test.
Would you like to try some sample NAC Test?
Click here to download sample papers from NASSCOM site.
NAC-Tech Test?
While NAC-Test is for any graduate/PG for entry into BPO sector, does a similar test exist for engineering students for entry into IT sector? The answer is yes. The name of this test is called NAC-Tech. More about this test in my future post. Watch out!
Labels: BPO |
| posted by
Prasanta Bora on
February 16, 2008
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How to find a BPO job
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February 13, 2008
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This post is being made in sequel to my previous post on What is BPO, which tells you what BPO is, how Call Centers are just one of the ways by which a BPO firm offers its service and what are the types of job dealt with by a BPO employee.
Are you interested to join BPO industry? If yes, then this post tells you what is in it for you and how to get it.
What is in it for you?
Many of us are wrong in carrying the assumption that a BPO job is a lowly paid job and that there is no career growth. On the contrary, a BPO job pays you very good salaries. On top of it, it also has got a very good hierarchical structure for future growth of any individual who can perform and who is willing to upgrade his/her skills.
Find below the hierarchical structures in a typical BPO firm, along with industry average salaries:
Rs. 8,000-12,000 per month at the entry level as Customer Care Representatives.
Rs.12,000-16,000 per month (plus incentives) as a Team Leader within one to two years.
Rs.20,000-25,000 per month as a Customer Service Supervisor within two or three years.
Rs.25,000–30,000 per month as a Shift Manager earning in about three to four years.
Rs.40,000–50,000 per month as a Manager in about four to five years.
Source: Times Jobs
The above salary is indicative only and a good BPO firm pays you according to skills developed by you. Also, majority of the BPO firms offers such benefits as Provident Fund,Gratuity, Personal Accident Insurance Scheme, Company Leased Accommodation and Subsidized Food and Transportation etc.
BPO employees are hence a very satisfied lot with above salaries as this survey done by Financial Express shows: ‘BPO salaries outstrip those in IT-ITeS’
Where can you find BPO jobs:
Which are the most favourite destinations of BPO job aspirants in India? Find below the name of top 15 BPO exporters for FY 06-07 as per NASSCOM:
 For a more exhaustive list of BPO firms, find in the link below names of 69 BPO firms along with their contact details and web-sites: http://bpojobsite.com/directory/
What skills you need to have to work in BPO firms:
Since the term "BPO" is very generaic, the skill needs depends on which segment you would like to work for. For example, if you would like to work for "Data search, Integration" segment, you need to have skills of Computing, language and analytical skills. While the segment of "Animation" demands from you skills of Drawing and creative skills, computer graphic skills.
The skills required by "Call center" segments are the most minimum: You may even be an undergraduate and just need have good communication and language skills including accent understanding and basic computing skills .
How to get BPO Jobs:
Indian BPO job-market is booming in every second. The ITES-BPO exports grew from USD 6.3 billion in FY 2005-06 to USD 8.4 billion in FY 2006-07 and is expected to grow to USD 10.5-11bn in FY08.
ITES-BPO employee base has also grown from 415,000 in FY 2006 to 553,000 in FY 2007. According to a NASSCOM McKinsey report 2005, demand for ITES-BPO professionals by 2010 is estimated to be 14 lakhs.
Therefore if you have the right skills, start today for the job haunt by applying to the websites of the BPO firms directly. Also look out for the job fairs in neighbourhood towns/cities being held by BPO firms from time to time.
NASSCOM has started administering "NASSCOM Assessment of Competence" (NAC) test from November 2006. This certification helps you establish your credentials for your all potential BPO employer. It also enables you to participate in job fairs organized by NASSCOM. What is this Test? Click here to know.
Labels: BPO |
| posted by
Prasanta Bora on
February 13, 2008
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What is BPO?
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February 09, 2008
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BPO (Business process Outsourcing) is the marvel of the modern age, which has made the world a truly global village. While a person from America lives in USA, imagine his bank balance being maintained by one of us here!
What is BPO and how can it help you to gain a source of livelihood? This post and the sequel tries to answer this question. Do BPO and Call Centre mean the same thing? This post would try to clarify some wrong held notions about BPO..
At first let us understand what is BPO:
When you as a student grow up and begin working, a certain part of your income would be taxable. How to get tax benefits? You go for a Income-Tax practitioner, take his help for a certain amount of fee. In other words, you outsource some of your work to the Income-Tax practitioner. Now if this person lives in the same country as yours, this process would be an on-shore outsourcing.
But if you find some one else (another Income-Tax practitioner) from some other country, who would charge less fee but give you the same benefit, naturally you would go for that practitioner. If you do so, that process would be an off-shore outsourcing.
With above understanding of what is called an individual “on-shore outsourcing” & “off-shore outsourcing”, let’s find what happens in an Industry level.
Large industries of the most developed countries in the world, in a similar way as illustrated above for an individual, out-sources part of their works primarily for cutting down their cost so that they becomes more profitable. How is the cost cut down? Because they have to pay less to an Indian compared to an American to get the same job done – 1$ = Rs. 40/=. Simple, is not it?
What jobs are outsourced?
After knowing what a BPO is, you must naturally be wondering what jobs are outsourced (since these are the jobs you would do, if you join a BPO firm). Is not it?
The jobs at a BPO industry can be divided primarily into two types:
1.Front office processes.
2.Back office processes.
Lets go into more detail of these two.
Front office processes:
As the terms imply, in Front office processes, most of the job involves direct interaction with the customers/clients of the company which outsources. For example, the customer of an Insurance Industry (who had outsourced this work) calls up and queries what is his premium status and you as an employee of the firm (say WIPRO BPO) answer it.
 At right is a list of Front office processes. If you need more detailed examples, visit this bpoindia.org site.
Back office processes:
Back office processes on the other hand involves those jobs in which you interact with the employees of the company which outsources, rather than their customers. The examples include Data Entry Services / Data Processing Services, Data Conversion Services etc.
 At left is a list of Back office processes. If you need more detailed examples, visit this bpoindia.org site.
If above is BPO what is a Call Centre than?
A Call centre is one of the ways by which a BPO firm provides its service on behalf of the outsourcing firm, primarily for Front Office Jobs - which involves direct interaction with the customers on phone. Yes, as the term "Call Centre" implies, it handles both inbound phone-calls (say for tech-supports, order status etc.) and outbound phone-calls (say for Lead generation to find more customers).
Would you like to see a very funny video on a call centre just to know how a call centre looks like? Following is a YouTube video in which a NBC TV worker lands up all the way from US to Hyderabad, as the Tech-support of NBC is located in this city..
From above, it must be clear to you that a “Call Centre” is just only one method by which a BPO firm provides their service.
With above understanding of what a BPO industry is, you must naturally be wanting to know what is in it for you and where to go seraching for a BPO job… you can find it in this post.Labels: BPO |
| posted by
Prasanta Bora on
February 09, 2008
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High Success rate in ICICI Job Test
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February 07, 2008
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Recruitment event conducted by NEPIF on behalf of ICICI has just been concluded. All the Engineering & Management institutes of North East, excepting NERIM took part. 52 students out of 292 who appeared, got the job offers – which gives us a success rate of 17.8%, a very high figure for a Pool Campus Interview - even above the nation-wide average of ICICI recruitment events in other places.
Our previous experiences used to tell us a different story: our success rate used to vary on or around 10%. We are particularly happy that from out of 72 students who qualified for the GD, 52 could make it, with success rate of over 72% … What made you perform better this time? How did you prepare yourself for the job test? Has this blog been able to help you in any way? We want to know about it.. do tell us by posting your comments at the end of this post.
Why some of you could not succeed?
The simple answer is one line – “You did not practice well!” There are only a very small number of students, who can be called “Brilliant by birth”. They succeed everywhere.. than why some others who are not brilliant succeeded while you did not?
The only reason is “They practiced”. Yes, they practiced at some point or the other.. say while they could attempt all numerical questions correctly, you could not…. how? they practiced the art of answering these questions, if not immediately prior to job test, than may be while they were in Class-X/XII.. as you might have found out, the questions were very easy!
While the winners won the job, what the other halves won?
One big thing gained by them is that they now have the exposure to a national level job test. Yes, take my word for granted.. this is going to yield result.. provided of course you learn to prepare for job tests along with your academic exams.. take help of this blogs resource for it – for Aptitude test, Technical test, GD, Interview, Psychometric Test..
We have thought of organizing an Inter-institute job test competition among NEPIF institutes.. the modalities would be simple: Only one group (with two members maximum) would be allowed to register per institute. On the test date, question sets would be sent to the groups, which has to be answered and sent to us within 48 hours. We would than judge which institute answered maximum correct answers and they would be the winner.. Would you be interested? Let us know by posting your comments…
Our Institute Coordinator Pratul Kalita tells us that TCS is coming for selecting general students (non-MBA/non-Engineering) in the mid of this month in Jorhat, Silchar & Shillong .. would tell you more about it in the next post. Stay tuned! |
| posted by
Prasanta Bora on
February 07, 2008
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