Knowledge skills a must for call center applicants

Only about 12% among the total number of applicants actually gets hired in call centers despite the huge demand and this could be pointed out to lack of comprehension skills for the applicants.

In an interview with the new Executive Director of TeleTech Alejandro “AJ” Maralit, he said that because of comprehensive skills only a portion from a number of applicants gets hired. He said that comprehension skill is important for a call center job as it is required to make transactions with their clients.

However he also pointed out that call center training schools can help applicants especially if they do not have the particular skills and training needed for the job. He said that the chance of getting hired is also high if one would enroll in a short call center training course as they would be exposed to call center environment and be given proper training. But still, he said that being hired would depend on their performance in the actual interview and exam that would matter.

He also added that with the government’s TESDA grant, call center training now has become accessible for the lower sectors of society as they can now improve their skills without worrying much about their expenses.

Maralit also discussed at the moment their applicants are mostly composed of fresh graduates. But career shifters have also been rapidly growing in number and are about 30-40% from the total applicants. He said that this sector is the new market focus of Teletech as these applicants are “emotionally charged” and are already serious about their career and their future. Career shifters are usually composed of engineers, nurses, and other professionals.

But to address the problem on skills training, Maralit underscored that Teletech is already working out with different schools like UC, USC, USP and USJR. – Rhia de Pablo