Page 28

Welsh Recruitment

Opportunities for all

Training course ‘graduates’ are being called up to fill scores of positions being created at leading city contact centres.

City contact centres open doors to recruits of high ESTEEM

The contact centre industry is booming and has grown by 250% in the past decade and now employs 18,000 people in the Cardiff area. And now, a unique two year pilot project targeted to the black and minority ethnic community is delivering jobs to people living in the southern arc of Cardiff.

The ESTEEM project, supported by the European Social Fund and managed by the Welsh Contact Centre Forum (WCCF), tackles issues relating to social exclusion, skills development and economic growth in marginalised communities.

Sandra Busby, Managing Director of the WCCF, said: “The ESTEEM Project is having a huge success in enabling the contact centre industry to target people from outside their more traditional recruitment pools. They must do this if they are to recruit new workers to this successful and growing industry.

(Picture: Photo of ESTEEM candidates with Sandra Busby, MD of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, ESTEEM candidates James Witcombe, and Christopher Harriott and Conduit Chief Commercial Officer, Neil Evans.)

“This unique project is particularly attractive to those looking to work in the industry as it offers the guarantee of an interview for a contact centre job on completion.”

Conduit, for instance, employs some 500 people in Hodge House, Cardiff handling business for its main client Vodafone, is recruiting ESTEEM graduates.

Chief Commercial Officer, Neil Evans, said “We pride ourselves on our diverse employee backgrounds and programmes that are encouraging keen and enthusiastic individuals to seek a career in the contact centre industry – this can only prove beneficial to all parties involved.”

Conduit trainee Christopher Harriott, aged 44, of Splott, said: “This is the first time I have worked in this kind of an environment. I have applied for jobs in contact centres in the past but have previously never got beyond the interview stage.

“Completing the ESTEEM project workshop gave me a great insight into the kind of work involved and was the reason why I was successful at interview.

British Gas, which has a major contact centre in Cardiff, is also taking on ESTEEM recruits.

(Picture: Photo of ESTEEM candidates James Whitcombe and Christopher Harriott with, l to r, Sandra Busby , MD of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum and Conduit Chief Commercial Officer, Neil Evans.)

Rukhsana Shahin, 30, of Riverside has secured a iob at the British Gas contact centre. Rukhsana who was looking to return to work after spending the past 10 year bringing up her two children, said: “I knew I would have to update my skills to get back into work and was thrilled to find that ESTEEM offered me this chance and also a guaranteed job interview on completion.

The ESTEEM Project targets people in particular in the Cardiff areas of Butetown, Riverside, Grangetown and Adamsdown. It consists of ten, two hour contact centre workshops followed by series of weeklong, e-skills accredited training courses, in call handling and customer services.