| The recent boom of jobs in call centers has improved the standard of living of thousands of indian homes. But on the other hand it has taken away the smiles of thousands of other people. |
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Call centre workers in New castle who lost their jobs due to outsourcing to India have criticized a local college for providing call centre training to students from India.
Newcastle College had to close its call centre training facility three years ago when companies began switching jobs abroad. But it has now reopened its course for students from India where the industry is booming.
The first eight students have come to Newcastle from Mumbai to learn call centre techniques; and the finer points of English pronunciation, geography and general culture. The course has angered unions who fought Lloyds TSB when it moved 1,000 jobs from Newcastle to Mumbai last year.
But, Pete Fiaschi, Head of Newcastle College of inter-national recruitment, told the local media: "We had a call centre training facility a few years ago but when all the companies moved the jobs abroad, it collapsed. We lost a lot of business at that point but now were getting it back by going overseas. The reality of whats happened is that the region has already lost this industry, so its not a case of any more jobs being lost. We would argue that at least were bringing some revenue from this business back to the region because the money from these courses is going into the local economy"
A second group of Indian workers will start the course in early 2006. The college is also expecting students from Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
In 2004, more than 1,000 people in Newcastle lost their jobs when Lloyds TSB moved its call centre to India. Barclays, Abbey and Hewlett Packard also outsourced work to India.
Lloyds TSB Group Union general secretary Steve Tatlow said: "Most colleges are there to prepare local people for the labour market. Im sure Newcastle does that too, but they also seem to be preparing people to take jobs from the local labour market."
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