Trendmill
EPO new buzzword in job mart

After BPO, education process outsourcing (EPO) is emerging as a hot work option

CAPITALISING on the shortage of teachers in the US, especially in subjects like mathematics, Indian tutors are finding online education a good revenue spinner in this emerging segment in outsourcing.

An offshoot of business process outsourcing (BPO), education process outsourcing (EPO) is India’s new emerging service offering and is getting wide support from both students and clients in the US, experts said on Monday.

Sitting in small cubicles, fitted with a headset and pen mouse, these tutors are teaching students subjects like mathematics from course curriculum specified in the US — that, too, in an accent familiar to Americans.

According to one estimate, about 40 per cent of the students in America fail in their mathematics examination and the country needs close to one million teachers over the next 10 years.

Currently, private tutoring is a $8 billion industry in the US and growing at 12 per cent a year. Of that, $3 billion is accounted for by tutoring through the Internet.

By the end of 2005, an estimated 77 million students under the age of 18 will have access to Internet, and thus to the e-tutoring format, official estimates reveal.

Two New Delhi-based Indian companies — Educomp Datamatics and Career Launcher — are early entrants to this new outsourcing business. Many more are expected to join the race, industry experts said.

Career Launcher has imparted tuition to more than 800 students in the US since it began operations 10 months ago, and Educomp, which started around the same time, has taught about 600 students.

"While the US faces a severe shortage of quality mathematics teachers, in India we have surplus skilled manpower. We just took the advantage of the available market," said Santanu Prakash, chief executive officer of Educomp.

At present, there are two platforms of imparting tuition through the Net — direct interaction with students and working as backhand office for some tutoring companies in US, industry experts explained.

The service is given through a software called "White Board" in both voice and text platforms. The student and teacher can see each other over the computer and talk on the headphone.

These companies provide their high-end technology driven education service and charge $ 20 to $ 35 per hour to students ranging from kindergarten to the graduation level.

All the payments are made through Internet and there is no fear of security problem in the mind of the Indian companies, industry officials said.

In spite of a few US players in this market, Indian companies with their price advantage and huge pool of qualified teachers are on a strong footing and do not feel the competition or enmity from their US counterparts.

"We are not taking away jobs of Americans. It’s just a matter of filling the gap and teaching their students to be efficient workers," said Anirudh Phadke, head of the EPO section of Career Launcher.
While Educomp is targeting one million students by 2010, Career Launcher has its eyes set on 1,000 more students by the end of this year.

The process began in 2002 when legislation called the No Child Left Behind Act was passed after the US Administration expressed alarm over the increasing failure rate of US students. Its goal is to improve teaching standards and results.

Under the act, American schools have to meet the 100 per cent proficiency goal by 2014. — IANS