Worldwide market targeted: College launches online delivery of call centre program. (Timmins and Cochrane).

Northern College is teaming up with a distance-education provider in taking its innovative call centre program straight to the Web...

Barely two years after launching its call centre service representative program, the college is ready to electronically export its knowledge from Timmins to the world.

Together with Embanet Corp., considered one of the pioneers in e-learning, the college plans to launch the six-week online certificate program in late October or early November.

Banking on some international interest in the program they received via the Web from telemarketing companies in India, Johanne Recoskie, the college's manager of distance learning, believes the program harbours great possibilities in the booming North American call centre market.

"Our aim is that employers, especially in the States, will pay for the training package for their employees," says Recoskie. "We just wanted to provide alternative solutions, especially for those whose schedules make it difficult to attend a call centre program during the day."

In targeting both students throughout Ontario and companies across North America, Recoskie believes some formalized training helps weed out potentially bad hires or underperforming agents that contribute to the more than 30 per cent employee turnover rate in the industry.

"In the knowledge and delivery of a call centre education, the program is very unique," says Steve Wells, executive director of marketing for Embanet. "You've usually got regular industry delivering call centre learning, but you don't have too many academic institutions delivering it," and certainly not the "depth of training" that Northern College is offering.

The concentrated online program, which shaves four weeks off the ten-week campus- based offering, provides specialty sections on sales and marketing, customer service and help-desk solutions, and also covers business communications, interpersonal relationships and team building.

The program is a mixed-mode delivery combining multimedia instruction through the Internet and CD-ROM material with textbooks. Students gain access through a user code and enter a Web-based platform managed by Embanet where they are given projects and assigned deadlines.

The beauty of the program is that it will run continuously throughout the year as individual students sign up: Instructors and mentors will be available via e-mail, regular chat sessions and a 1-800 number for technical support and to answer questions and solicit feedback on assignments.

Wells says distance learning courses can save businesses up to 20 per cent over traditional ground-based training and expects "hundreds" of students will sign up within the year.

Embanet (short for 'electronic MBA.'), a Don Mills-based company, has been specializing in Web-based delivery and marketing since the mid-1990s. Their instructional designers are experts at converting a print-based campus course into an online virutal classroom format. They manage the delivery of OntarioLearn, the consortium of 22 community colleges offering access to hundreds of courses over the Internet.

Embanet is funding the entire cost of developing the curriculum and the program and marketing to students. Embanet and Northern College will split the tuition fees.