LCC reinstates call center classes.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

Four years after it discontinued a program that prepared students for call center/customer service jobs, Lane Community College is reinstating it.

"Your New Career Is Calling," proclaims a flier advertising the short-term training program, which will run from Jan. 23 to March 17.

With the steady growth in Lane County's call-center industry, and the pending opening - and planned expansion - of a 240-employee reservations call center in Springfield for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., LCC officials decided it was time to restart the eight-week certificate program.

The college had offered a similar program in 2000 and 2001, and it had an 85 percent success rate in placing graduates in jobs, said Shirl Meads, project coordinator for LCC's Workforce Development Depart- ment.

But the program was discontinued when it became harder for those graduates to find jobs in the industry, she said.

"I think when you do a lot of training, you tend to saturate whatever the market is," Meads said.

But the Workforce Development Department thinks demand is back, from students who want to enroll in the $758 program - a maximum of 20 will be admitted this term - and from call center employers eager to hire graduates.

About 10 call centers, ranging from Northwest Direct Teleservices' 125-employee center in west Eugene to Symantec's 984-employee customer service center in Springfield, operate in Lane County.

The industry employs 1,174 workers in Lane County - and the number would be nearly double that if Symantec's work force were included.

But the Oregon Employment Department classifies those workers under a different industry code, computer workers rather than call center workers.

The average annual wage at call centers in Lane County last year was $18,877, or $9.08 an hour, compared with an average annual wage of $31,338, or $15.07 an hour, for all occupations.

Royal Caribbean is the latest addition to the local call center industry.

It plans to expand quickly: from 240 employees when it opens next month, to 600 employees by 2008, and up to 1,000 employees by 2009, said Chris Monnette, head of trade and support service at Royal Caribbean's Springfield center.

He said he's eager to learn more about LCC's program, and that it could be a good resource for Royal Caribbean's ongoing need for cruise representatives.

"My general sense is anything we can do to help train and educate the work force would be good for us," Monnette said.

He estimates that at least half of the recently hired cruise representatives do not have previous call center experience.

"What we're looking for are people with customer service skills," he said.

Employers Overload, a staffing service that screens applicants for a local 200-employee call center - not Royal Caribbean - also is interested in LCC's training program, branch manager Peggy Thompson said.

The firm recently called LCC to ask when graduates of the program would complete the program, Meads said.

"I think it's good confirmation when you get calls from employers asking when will your graduates be available," Meads said.

The 154-credit hour curriculum will emphasize keyboarding, communication skills, customer service, and marketing techniques.

Compared with the earlier training program, this one will cover more communication skills, and won't spend as much time on basic computer skills, Meads said.

For example, "We added diction and enhanced the speech part of it to make sure people are speaking clearly and are using common language - not slang or colloquialisms," she said.

The training program sounds useful, said Kevyn Myers, vice president of Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which has a 250-employee call center in Eugene.

"If someone listed that on their resume, we'd definitely bring them in for an interview," she said.

Not all call center employers think the program could help their recruitment efforts, however.

"I kind of stay away from customer-service oriented (training) because they're usually not the greatest sales people," said Bret Mullins, site director at Northwest Direct Teleservices.

Northwest Direct is primarily an outbound center, making sales calls for a range of financial institutions and insurance companies.

"We're very upbeat, positive and enthusiastic," he said.

The emphasis at Northwest Direct isn't on customer service, or making the customer feel comfortable, Mullins said. It's always on trying to close the sale, he said.

The LCC classes will run most weekdays from about 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Meads said. They should appeal to a range of students, from people eager to build a career in the call center industry to retirees interested in part-time work, Meads said.

The four instructors teaching the classes have been "handpicked to work with a vast array of learning styles, learning skills and levels," Meads said.

CALL CENTER TRAINING

LCC offers new short-term certificate program

Dates:

Jan. 23 to March 17

Cost: $758

For more information: 463-5229