Insourcing

[fivemack]

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/18/bris_backpackers_tak.html

(British backpackers working in Indian call centres, rather than Australian fruit farms, to pay for their next bit of trekking)

It's scarcely surprising; friend-of-a-colleague is doing it now, working at a call-centre as an authority on the English. I was a little more surprised to meet, in a tandoori restaurant in New Delhi, a Liverpudlian who'd gone to India in order to take Microsoft and Cisco certified-professional exams with training in English from one of the Indian universities.

Not sure that'll be a success, but it's an interesting comparison to make; Liverpool living costs plus 3000/yr tuition fees go, I suspect, an awful lot further in Delhi. Staying long-term in a 3* hotel in Bangkok costs rather less than I paid in rent for a shared house in Gloucestershire, for example.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

... whereas the majority of temps where I'm working in Surrey come from South Africa.

Am following your journal with interest, it all sounds fascinating!

Louisa

[(Anonymous)]

South Africa .. same here in east Anglia. Ask them why they left and they shake their heads and look scared. On the other hand there's a fine new university there supported almost entirely by students who work for the university. Hip hooray for any who manage to stand on their own two feet!