‘Customer Service & Retail Sales’ course to cater growing service industry

KARACHI - Recognizing the growing need for trained staff accompanying the huge expansion in retail industry, TAF Foundation’s Vocational Training Institute (VTI) is launching its pilot for the Customer Service & Retail Sales course from this month.

Supported by growing urbanization, the retail industry in Pakistan is growing at unprecedented rates. The country’s retail market size is currently estimated to be around $152 billion with an annual growth rate of 8% as per media reports. This sector is also the country’s second-largest employer, employing more than 16% of the country’s total labour force.

According to the program, TAFF-VTI has recruited women from across Karachi for the pilot batch mostly from marginalized localities of the city, aged 18-28 years with at least intermediate education will be trained, preparing them to effectively work in fast-paced sales environments.

The 15 weeks vocational training program covers different aspects of customer service and retail sales and the learning material for the program has been designed in consultation with industry partners.

The aim of the program is to offer students an understanding of different types of organizations and their products, enabling them to deal efficiently with both internal and external customers while having the ability to make a sale. With theoretical learning and practical simulations of the subject matter, the graduates can adapt to diverse working environments in the industry such as the front desk of restaurants and hotels, call centres and sales assistant at clothing, shoes, furniture and many other retail outlets.

Aatiqa Lateef, CEO TAF Foundation, shared, “We all know that retail staff and customer care personnel are the frontline troops in the battle to win and keep customers. So it makes sense for businesses to invest in staff members who can make the customer experience a better one than the competition. The corporate sector is continuously looking for skilled individuals especially women for the service industry and many are excited about TAFF-VTI’s upcoming Customer Service and Retail Sales course. We’ve designed our program keeping in view the industry requirements and with a special focus on personal grooming and professional ethics.”

A lot of retail staff in Pakistan comes from the lower-middle-class background with no formal training. TAFF-VTI’s Customer Service and Retail Sales course will ensure the recruited women are provided hands-on experience regarding the skills they will be required to perform in a work setting that requires selling products and dealing with customers.

All of TAFF-VTI’s programs include modules related to soft skills such as Legal Empowerment, Financial Empowerment and Professionalism and Ethics. “TAFF-VTI’s aim is to enable women in Pakistan by not only providing them with a professional skill set but to also empower them with a legal and financial understanding of their rights as women. We have seen that these additional skills have had a transformational impact on their personal lives” asserts Ms Aatiqa.-PR