HMP & YOI Parc, Bridgend, uses ISV training software to prepare prisoners for real-world contact centre jobs
ISV Group, the UK technology training company, today announces that Her Majesty's Prison and Young Offenders' Institute Parc, Bridgend, South Wales, is using its CallSkills software to help prisoners secure full-time employment in the contact centre and customer services sector upon release. ISV's partner, recruitment and training company, Route One, has helped HMP Parc establish a customer services training suite to run three-week training courses which can accommodate up to 10 prisoner students at a time, and which provides computer-based soft skills and IT skills training from ISV. HMP Parc, which is managed by Securicor Justice Services, hopes to put 160 prisoners through the course in 12 months, and has established close links with local employers that require an intake of customer service agents. This is intended to help smooth the transition process for ex-offenders into the workplace.
The move by HMP Parc, Bridgend, follows a similar initiative by Route One with HMP Cardiff, where a training suite has also been established. In HMP Parc's case, the ISV software is giving prisoners the opportunity to get hands-on experience of using computers to develop their IT skills competency as well as training in customer service skills. Managing Director at Route One, John Ward, explains, "In the first week, prospective students are given a presentation of the course, and are interviewed over the telephone and face-to-face to determine their propensity and suitability for customer services and contact centre employment. Once on the course, they get to use the ISV software to develop the necessary skills, and have full access to a qualified trainer in a classroom environment."
Senior manager in charge of customer services training at HMP Parc, Carol Freeman, explains further: "Route One provided the initial training for our own trainer, and we can now provide a two weeks' intensive hands-on course where students can study and learn at their own pace. The ISV software also allows them to take a printout of an evaluation of their progress, so that each knows how well they are doing compared with others. Our contact with local employers also provides them with the spur needed to progress, as they recognise that developing core skills in IT and customer services can be a fast track to jobs that actually exist and that are in demand to be filled. In this way we can help break the re-offending cycle which ex-offenders can find themselves in."
ISV's CallSkills software provides training and assessment in the skills needed in areas such as customer service, outbound sales, inbound sales, listening, alpha & numeric keyboard entry and caller simulations. Many large companies worldwide use ISV's CallSkills software to train their contact centre teams, including Cendant and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Overall, some 45,000 agent positions are being trained using ISV's CallSkills software. CallSkills is deployed in more than 200 companies at 480 contact centre sites worldwide. |
