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Gov’t Looking to Tap into BPO Industry

August 3, 2012

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The Government will be boosting training and office space as it looks to tap into the Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Speaking in the 2012/13 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representative on July 31, State Minister for Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Julian Robinson, said the aim is to create 15,000 additional jobs in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector over the next four years.

He informed that the HEART Trust/NTA “is developing specialised BPO training programmes up to the equivalent of level three certification. Even more encouraging, as part of the Career Advancement Programme (CAP), HEART is going to include business processes training modules for students, who are a part of the programme,” Mr. Robinson said.

He noted that this will ensure that students not only have the academic basics, but will also have practical training, which will allow them to move from high school into the business sector.

Mr. Robinson said the main challenge facing the government in the ICT sector is the lack of commercially available space in the right locations.

He said to create 15,000 new jobs, the sector requires approximately 750,000 square feet of new space, which must be close to labour pool and transport links.

He informed that the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) is going to be providing 100,000 square feet of space by next year.

BPO is referred to as  back office outsourcing,  which includes internal business functions such as human resources,  finance, accounting, and front office outsourcing  and customer-related servicessuch as contact centre services.

The global BPO industry was valued at US$680 billion at the end of 2011. Estimates are that the Latin America and the Caribbean market will be worth US$5 billion by 2013.

Last Updated: July 29, 2013

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