1. NASSCOM Assessment of Competence – Fact Sheet
NASSCOM Assessment of Competence
Today, India is increasingly acknowledged as the emerging ‘services-hub of the
world’ with a large share of the global IT/off-shored IT enabled services market. This
has been possible due to the availability of skilled manpower. The Indian ITES-BPO
industry is growing at a tremendous pace, employing 1.3 million people (June 1
2006). The industry, under the aegis of NASSCOM, is working towards sustaining this
growth momentum, and proactive workforce development is a step in this direction.
One of NASSCOM’s key goals is to catalyze the expansion of India’s English speaking
manpower pool and ensure that the country’s ITES-BPO talent resources are
equipped with industry relevant skill-sets. In line with this rationale, NASSCOM,
along with Hewitt Associates and industry players, through NASSCOM Assessment of
Competence (NAC) will deploy an Assessment and Certification framework to ensure
a steady supply of quality ITES-BPO professionals to meet the present and future
requirements of the industry.
The Indian ITES-BPO industry has been on a high–growth path and has clocked
revenues of USD 6.3 billion in FY2005-06. According to the NASSCOM-McKinsey
Report 2005, India will face a potential shortage of semi-skilled workforce in the next
decade or so, particular in ITES-BPO industry. Currently, only about 25% of technical
graduates and 10-15% of general college graduates are suitable for employment in
the offshore IT and BPO industries, respectively. As countries from around the world
enter the offshore market; it is necessary that India must improve the quality and
skills of its workforce.
NAC aims to address the possible talent shortage by creating a robust and
continuous pipeline of talent through a standard assessment and certification. This
will provide insights into the real training and development needs of talent and hence
help companies, Governments and Universities develop customized talent
development initiatives and programs. This will be achieved by assessing candidates
on key skills through a national standard assessment. The scores obtained by
candidates will help organisations screen them and determine training needs for
individuals. Hewitt Associates is the Program Manager for the NAC, and is
responsible for designing and rolling out NAC on behalf of NASSCOM and Indian
ITES-BPO players.
The program will test the aptitude of a candidate on 7 different skill sets. This will
include listening and keyboard Skills, verbal ability, spoken english, comprehension
and writing ability, office software usage, numerical & analytical skills, and
concentration & accuracy.

2. NASSCOM Assessment of Competence – Fact Sheet
Pilot and Rollout of NAC
The NAC pilot testing phase was officially launched in August 2005 and has seen
participation from 6000 candidates; 22 ITES-BPO companies1, state governments
and educational institutes. The national rollout, from November 2006, will see
participation from ITES - BPO companies and state governments and institutes2.
As a next step, during the national rollout, the tests that have been run during the
pilot will be technically assessed by a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC)
instituted by NASSCOM, and evaluate the statistical validity, robustness and
reliability of the tests of each consortium. These inputs will be incorporated in the
final selection of the partner for NAC’s national roll out. An independent Governing
Council will also be set up by NASSCOM for overseeing NAC as a full fledged
program. This council will act as the supreme authority in all matters concerning
NAC.
Key Benefits of NAC
1) NAC will increase the reach of ITES–BPO industry to tier II and tier III cities for
their sourcing requirements; and additionally will spread awareness about job
opportunities in the ITES-BPO industry
2) Industry
a) Creation of a national standard for recruitment of entry level talent
b) Substantial cost savings and reduced cycle time for talent sourcing
c) Ease of benchmarking for individual processes with industry standards
d) Ability to create visibility and reach out to a larger audience
3) Job aspirants
a) A common, transparent process across companies in the ITES-BPO sector
b) Ability to identify their strengths and weaknesses and self-assess training
needs
4) Training Firms
a) Insights into the training requirements given the skill gaps
b) Inputs to help create and refine training modules which deliver immediate
benefits and hence has greater buy-in
5) Governments
a) Help explore talent in Tier II and Tier III Cities for Industry requirements
b) Understanding talent strength areas and areas of improvement
c) Employment generation and creation of education to employability linkage
1
24/7 Customer; Accenture; Allsec Technologies; Amex India; Axa Business Services; Cognizant Technology Services;
Convergys India; Dell India Services; EXL Inc.; Genpact; GTL Limited; Hewitt HR BPO; IBM Daksh; ICICI Onesource;
MphasiS BPO Services; NIIT SmartServe; Progeon; SCOPE International; Transworks; Vertex India; Wipro BPO; WNS
2 States of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar and Sikkim Manipal University

3. NASSCOM Assessment of Competence – Fact Sheet
d) Help in attracting serious investors by enabling State governments to plan
their investment policies basis the ground data about talent availability