Story: Norwich Union moves 2,500 jobs to India

Posted by: Anonymous (Monday 5 January 2004, 9:46 PM)

Offshoring is inevitable, and has been sign-posted for some time. In the same way that the manufacturing industries lost people in the 70s/80s, white collar professions like IT will loose people today. The question isn't whether the jobs will go - they will - but how we go about replacing those jobs. We can either try and drive wages down - with the same inevitble result as in manufacturing i.e. the businesses fold and all work goes offshore - or by traing our people into the value added, high skilled jobs, that can't currently be delivered from abroad, and which leave head offices here.

For any who don't realise it, in India you get a graduate with a degree (maths, computer science, business etc) for a fraction of the cost that you get in Europe/US. And most are employed to do jobs (back-office functions, call centre etc) which wouldn't require a degree here.

Like Canute we can't turn the tides back: Those planning now to build a boat are best placed to survive.