Call Center/Career Center to expand opportunity

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 1998

The Northeast Kingdom is pleased it has seen healthy growth of good paying manufacturing jobs. But now a public/private initiative is focusing on the dual task of training skilled workers for the new jobs that businesses are creating and creating a whole new industry to take advantage of the latest technology.

Plans call for combining public funds for training and assisting welfare recipients make the transition from welfare to work, and private investment to build and operate a "Call Center." Call Center employees would receive incoming telephone calls from customers wanting to place orders with participating direct marketing companies.

The Call Center would replace in-house call centers that direct marketers often find to be costly and inefficient. It would also replace those irregular part-time jobs with full-time positions that offer opportunity for advancement.

Wayne Fawbush, director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, said current plans for the Call Center involve a "consortium of private businesses that will run a for-profit center that will also provide jobs for the 'welfare to work' program."

Although final commitments had not yet been made, some of the direct marketers involved in the project include the Vermont Country Store of Weston, Gardener's Supply of Burlington, and Resolution of South Burlington.

"We don't know what the final mix will look like." said Fawbush. "There are a number of other folks involved, including Bobby Miller, the potential landlord. He's very interested, very possibly as an investor."

"We should have a decision by the end of August," said Mary Miller, project coordinator for the proposed Call Center, to be located on upper Main Street in Newport. She said hat at least two of the direct marketers and another private investor are each apparently prepared to put up $250,000. The Northern Community Investment Corporation will kick it another $250,000 for a total investment of $1 million.

The "public" portion of the partnership fell into place in late May when the US Department of Labor awarded the Northern Community Investment Corporation a $3.1 million Welfare to Work program grant for job training. The grant, written by Paul Denton, director of the Northern Community Investment Corporation, will provide training, along with on-site child care, help with transportation and mentoring, to assist welfare recipients to successfully make the transition from public assistance to private employment.

Denton's job training proposal won one of the 49 grants awarded by the federal government out of more than 600 applications. "It's quite an innovative project. There are a lot of people up there on welfare because there is no way for them to work and get childcare," Denton said.

This project is a real local initiative, according to everyone involved with it. It began with various local people discussing possible new employment opportunities in the Kingdom, according to Denton. There was Sara Gregoire of North Country Union High School adult services; Jennifer Davis, Newport district director for the Vermont Department of Employment and Training: and Skip Wellman, district director in Newport for the Vermont Department of Social Welfare, along with Denton.

The idea of a Call Center had been around for a while, but Denton said he had been thinking a large telecommunications firm might be interested in the project. It was Fawbush, who had another idea. "I knew Wayne and he knew the direct marketers," Denton recalled. Last June, Susan Auld, commissioner of Employment and Training, arranged a meeting in Newport to bring all parties together.

A call center is not a unique idea, Miller said. Private groups and businesses have them and in some cases phone companies will set them up. But this one, using private investment from private direct marketers and public job training money is different. "I think it could be a model," said Miller.

Eventually, plans are for the Call Center to provide services not just to the original direct marketer/investors but also to other state businesses. "Everyone feels the rates will be very competitive," Miller said. It will not only keep those dollars in the state, but will also provide a much needed service to increase the bottom line for those businesses.

Miller said as important as the center could be for employment in the Kingdom, it has even greater potential.

"It could be a great economic development tool for the state," she said. "We're also working very closely with state tourism and marketing people."

The target now is to have the center fully operational by July 1, 1999, but possibly some operations could begin a bit earlier than that, Miller said. The Call Center will initially have 50 seats, and, if the demand is there, there could be 100 jobs on two shifts. Eventually she said it could have as many as 200 seats, providing 400 jobs on two shifts.

The Call Center and its associated training programs will offer new opportunities not just for people on welfare but also for those who are under-employed because they lack the necessary skills. Fawbush said he expects the pay at the Call Center would be about $8 an hour to start; plus full medical benefits. "That's pretty good for up here," he said.