BPO sector continues to grow

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS

Today, Mayor Dan Plato and I had the pleasure of opening a Teleperformance call centre in the Cape Town central business district with additional facilities located in Woodstock. Teleperformance offers call centre services and currently employs 1 215 people. This extension will create 2 000 new job opportunities in Cape Town.

Cape Town is fast becoming the call centre hub on the continent, and has created over 35 000 job opportunities servicing the international community over the last ten years. There are a further 25 000 young people servicing the domestic market. Cape Town has the biggest BPO sector in South Africa while Teleperformance is the biggest BPO company in the world.

Over the past few months, I visited some of the key role players in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in Cape Town to hear how the City can help grow this industry for the benefit of our residents.

During the early stages of the lockdown I engaged with my counterparts at the National Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) to motivate for certain contact centres to gain essential service status so that they could continue to operate and save jobs.

I am grateful for the assistance from DTIC to ensure the continued operations of some contact centres, thereby saving jobs.

The City identified BPO as a high growth sector due to the number of job opportunities and investment potential this sector creates. We see the BPO sector as a key component in the City’s economic recovery plan. Click this link to view a video on this burgeoning sector – http://wordpress-local:8081/cape-towns-bpo-sector-poised-for-growth/

That is why we also invest in our strategic business partner, the Cape Town Call Centre Development Association, now trading under the new brand of CapeBPO, previously trading as BPESA Western Cape, who we partner with to grow and develop the Call Centre and BPO industry.

Research and trends indicate that Cape Town and South Africa are well-placed to absorb and provide 24/7 BPO functionality from other countries and clients which have been forced to relocate due to the global COVID-19 global pandemic.

It is therefore important that we ensure we have a pool of trained and skilled potential employees to staff the increasing number of call centres.

I am excited to share another first for any city, the launch of the Cape Skills Accelerator programme. The City will be the first municipality to receive funding from the Department of Higher Education and Training to get the project off the ground.

This project will offer training and workplace experience to thousands of young people in the BPO sector. In the first phase of this project, approximately 3 300 learners will be trained and provided with the opportunity to gain workplace experience.

The Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project will provide skills training, stipends as well as job placement into companies – giving young people the best chance of success.

A key priority for the City’s Enterprise and Investment Department is to partner with this sector to ensure jobs and investment are retained and to lead our recovery, creating opportunities for the residents of the city.