The voice and accent trainers make sure that a caller calling from across the seven seas does not have any trouble whatsoever in understanding the Indian executive who takes his or her calls. "The idea is to make the caller feel that the person on the other line is just a few blocks down from his office, not thousands of miles across the world’’, says Nitin, a voice and accent trainer working with a BPO.

The number of voice and accent trainers in a call centre can vary between 20 and 60. Their services are used from hiring the suitable candidates to training them in the requisite voice and accent. Till now, there are no institutes where one can do a course in voice and accent training. The call centres themselves are the best training ground for a career in voice and accent training.

"I joined a call centre as an executive and took calls for a couple of years before getting selected for the job of a voice and accent trainer’’, says Pooja, a 27-year-old girl who works for an American call centre in Gurgaon. Pooja has a training session with several batches of new executives, where she trains them to speak like Americans." The vowel sounds and the consonant sounds of certain words have to be changed to get the required pronunciation’’, she says.

She, however, says that what matters above everything is the clarity of speech and if that is good then it is not necessary to adopt a foreign accent. Agrees, Itish Arora, a 24- year-old accent trainer working for a call centre in Noida," Our first priority is clarity. If someone has clarity of speech , it is good enough’’, he says.

The main challenge for the voice and accent trainers is to neutralise the accents of their executive. "South Indians, North Indians all have a particular way of speaking. We try to make them speak in a standard way, which is clear to everyone’’, says Pooja.

Besides the accent and clarity, good grammar is another pre-requisite for a call centre executive and a voice and accent trainer plays an important role in screening candidates for their grammar, accents and clarity of speech. They are also required to monitor calls of executives. They periodically listen to employees’ conversation with callers and see if they need a refresher course in voice and accent training.

Since the voice and accent trainers are hand-picked for the job because of their better accents and fluency, they are better placed professionally. This is also reflected in their pay-packets. A voice and accent trainer starts with around Rs 15,000 a month and goes on to get Rs 30,000 when he/she begins to lead a team of voice and accent trainers.

Q I am doing BCA. How can I build a career in cyber security?

A Information security has emerged as one of the most critical issues in IT and consequently one of the most sought-after specialities in demand.

For joining the Air Force and the Navy wings of the armed forces, you need maths and physics at the 10+2 level.

The written exam consists of two objective type papers. Paper I is on maths (300 marks) and Paper II is on general ability (600 marks). The paper is further divided into two parts: Part A consists of questions on English, and Part B consists of questions on general knowledge — physics, chemistry, general science, history, freedom movement, geography and current events.

If you obtain the minimum qualifying marks in this exam, you will be asked to appear before a Services Selection Board (SSB) for the intelligence and Personality tests.

Candidates for the Army and the Navy wings of the NDA and the Executive Branch of the Naval Academy are assessed for officer potential. Those for the Air Force have to take an additional Pilot Battery Aptitude Test.

There are also certain physical requirements that you have to meet, which are specified in the notification that is published in Employment News and leading national dailies.

The Navy also recruits matriculates and those who have completed 10+2 with physics and maths as artificer apprentices. For details, log on to: www.nausena-bharti.mil.in

For complete details see CARING’s Guide to Careers in the Armed Forces.

Hospital administration aims at equipping professionals with the requisite knowledge to plan, co-ordinate, direct, and control the various activities of a large hospital.

Hospital administration is a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating modern managerial tools and techniques, principles of public administration and behavioural sciences. While a handful of professional courses admit non-medical graduates, a qualified MBBS is eminently suitable and preferred for this field. There are many postgraduate courses, and it is best done at this level.

The courses broadly focus on four areas of management: human resource management, facility management, quality and cost management, and information systems.

There are only three universities which offer this course at the Bachelor’s level:

Bachelor’s in Hospital Administration is offered at the following universities:

Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Nalanda Parisar, 169 Ravindranath Tagore Marg, Indore 452001. Course: Bachelor’s in Hospital Admin (3 yrs, leading to 2 yrs MHA) Eligibility: 10+2.

Bharathidasan University, Palkalaiperur, Tiruchirappalli 620024 (T.N). Course: BSc (Health Care & Hospital Mgt).

Pervin Malhotra,
Director, CARING