One of the dangers of training people for teleworking is that it doesn’t provide a guaranteed route into employment. With one eye to this issue, and trying to provide a practical outcome, a new company has linked teleworker training to the burgeoning call centre industry now reckoned to employ 200,000 people in 7,000 call centres in the UK. Behind the move at GCS Telegence is Roy Guthrie perhaps better known to TCA members as its chairman.

" Teleworking is all about using technology to work from where you are," says Roy. "The growth of call centres is an example of this. They can be set up anywhere - they don’t depend on transport infrastructure or proximity to London, and with the new call distribution systems they can  link people in who are working from home like the AA have started to do. "

During the past year, some eighty people have embarked on the City and Guilds Level II Teleworking qualification with GCS, which was the first training organisation to offer the course in Scotland. The qualification comprises fourteen mandatory units and one optional selected from a group of six. Depending on the choices made, the qualification equips people to become teleworkers, working on behalf of remote or local employers. Alternatively, one of the units deals with the set up and operation of a small business. But the teleworking units have also been used as a precursor to the Scottish Qualifications Authority Professional Development Award Certificate in Call Centre Operations.

This award recognises the skills that call centre staff employ in providing customer care within the industry, as well as facilitating call centre workflow. It comprises of four units with ten elements and is carried out in a live call centre environment over a period of three to four months. During this time the participant is monitored in a wide cross section of call centre activities. Computer operation and recording procedures are also part of the monitoring process. "Although this is a fairly new venture for GCS, the first nine candidates have achieved the qualification," says Roy Guthrie. " A formal presentation will be carried out next month following the receipt of the twenty-six teleworking certificates that have also been completed.