Jon Ashworth MP for Leicester South visits bss customer contact centre in Leicester

1st February 2012 - Jon Ashworth MP visited the bss contact centre in Leicester on Friday 13 January. bss is an award-winning not for profit outsourcing customer interaction service provider that operates various telephones help lines for charitable and public bodies.

Speaking ahead of the visit Jon said: "bss plays a vital role in running the Next Step Careers Service telephone helpline which assists adults into training and work. At a time when jobs are hard to come by the assistance offered by the telephone advisors is vital. I am looking forward to meeting the local advisors who provide this vital service and hearing at first hand the advice that is provided to those looking for work and training."

In addition to providing the Next Step Careers Service telephone helpline, bss operates the Minority Language Service for Next Step. This service is only provided from the Leicester Office of bss which recruits and trains local people with language skills to provide the advice. This dedicated Minority Language Service started in 2003 and has expanded to cover eight community languages - Urdu, Punjabi, Sylheti, Gujarati, Farsi, Somali, French and Polish.

Michael Noble, Acting Operations Manager at bss, stated: "Adults calling the Next Step Career Service helpline are assisted in their search for employment, training or career development and are also assisted with CV writing skills, job application and interview skills. Through this service, individuals can speak to a trained careers coach to enhance and develop their career prospects to enrich their working lives".

bss has been providing this service since 1999, originally on behalf of Learn Direct. It has had offices in Leicester for eleven years and currently employs around 100 people. Advisers undertake training to NVQ Level 4 in Advice and Guidance with some progressing onto postgraduate careers guidance qualifications. bss in Leicester is located at Third Floor, Arnhem House, 31 Waterloo Way, LE1 6LR.
  
About bss (www.bss.org)

bss is the UK's only not-for-profit provider of multi-channel  outsourced contact centres, mobile, web, mailing and response handling capabilities. It was set up in 1975 when the BBC launched its ground-breaking adult literacy campaign 'On the Move'. In 1977 bss became a separate organisation with the remit to enable people to take action to improve the quality of their lives and society, through the provision and management of impartial information and advice.
 
bss successfully operated and managed the helpline for the 2011 Census which received nearly one million phone calls in ten weeks. It also won the 2011 Outsourcing Contact Centre Provider of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association Awards (NOAAs). Clients include British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, BIG Lottery Fund, mind, and the Home Office.