Trends in Training

Learning will become less course-centric and more knowledge-centric. Instead of asking what courses they can take on a particular subject, learners will ask what knowledge is available on a particular subject. Learners will continue to become more independent and "self-taught" as it becomes increasingly easy and convenient for them to find information and knowledge at their fingertips - and right in their workplace. The web (specifically Web 2.0) is changing the internet experience from static information and transactions to dynamic collaborations, offering more interactive and personable experiences. As a result, learning will be revolutionized. In today's workplaces, people need to think, analyze, and solve problems - not just do routine work and tasks. Therefore, it is becoming paramount that employees know where to look for validated knowledge, instead of trying to remember everything. As job responsibilities continue to require more cognitive and relational thinking and the work itself becomes a continuous and accelerated learning process, the development of personal learning skills becomes critical for both employee and company success. What we can expect in the future, then, is more learners managing their own learning, and learning professionals supporting learners' efforts. This is referred to as professional and competent self-managed learning. Learners must learn to:

Draw insight from information and extract learning from experience
Evaluate information quality (validate the information)
Become competent with a variety of learning resources
Use analytical, systemic, and creative thinking
Consciously manage their own learning
Help others learnAs learning professionals, we must learn to:
Help link organizational needs and learner priorities
Help accelerate the learning that organizations and individuals need
Ensure that individuals and managers have the learning capabilities and mental models they need
Make accelerated learning resources accessible; create knowledge management systems
Become a guide and facilitator of the new learning process

Sri Lanka favorite place for Indian BPO majors

As Indian ITes players spread their wings and open global centres, Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a favourite destination for many vendors. Big BPO players in­cluding third party vendors and captives are now discov­ering the benefits of opening shop in the island country.

While WNS and the captive player HDPI (offshore captive of HSBC) set up their centres in Sri Lanka way back in 2004, others are moving there by and by So far, HDPI is the largest captive BPO in the country with around 2,500 seats and 2,000 employees. While WNS, has around 350 employees. As per Sri Lankan Infor­mation and Communication Technology Agency statistics, the local BPO industry employs over 4,000 people and it earned around $42 million in 2007.Not a very late starter in the BPO space, the Sri Lankan BPO sector began operations in 2000 with regular BPO units. And despite the political uncer­tainty, the industry got a boost in 2004 with nearly five new companies starting operations. The momentum continued through 2005 with eight addi­tional new firms setting up shop there. Slowly, yet steadily it's gaining ground.

The country is going all out to woo new players. As GL Peiris, Sri Lankan minister for export, development and international trade recently said. He said, Sri Lanka has invited a handful of Indian IT outsourcing firms to invest there so that they too can gain a competitive edge.

According to Swapnil Sin-ha, senior researc h analyst, Everest Research Institute, "Sri Lanka has been in the radar of big BPO players in India for some time now. They have been evaluating it as a potential op­tion for expansion." Apart from being a low-cost destination, tax incentives provided by the government have also contributed towards attracting BPO investments in the country. However, politi­cal instability, quality of man­power and inadequate infra­structure are some challenges that companies still face there.


Experts feel traditional models of doing business may not always work there and a BOT model could be a better arrangement before entering the country. As Aradhana Kol-hatkar, senior analyst, Val-ueNotes Research says, "In­dian vendors looking to ex­pand delivery centres beyond India are likely to consider Sri Lanka for additional capacity, the benefits being its cultural similarity and physical prox­imity with India." The vari­ety of services being provid­ed from there include finance and accounting, data process­ing, voice-based services, re­search support and publish­ing services. Now homegrown ITeS com­panies too are now attracting business. For example, Amba Research a Sri Lanka firm with over 350 employees offers in­vestment research and support services to clients. Most of the business to the country comes from US, Europe and Australia.

There are still some road­blocks. For example, telecom services are still an obstacle and domestic leased line costs are considerably higher com­pared to other countries of the region. Also, as Gaurav Gupta, country head, Everest Group points out, "The country is un­likely to be able to make a strong play unless the political turmoil and security threats are controlled or mitigated."