While most people think of call centers as only being good for business, they also allow citizens to get vital services. It is with the goal of not only earning money but also helping a community that Blackboard, a leading education technology company, announced an increased partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), alongside its Student Services Contact Center in Somerset, Kentucky.
"When we opened our doors in Somerset nine years ago we were the only EdTech company in town," Willie Wilson, Director of Operations for the Blackboard Contact Center in Somerset said in a recent release. "Since then, we've been able to provide hundreds of employees the ability to work in the tech industry, and in turn opened lots of new and exciting career opportunities for them.”
The contact center was recently paid a visit by Congressman Hal Rogers and other representatives with the ARC. That group represents its own partnership between federal, state and local governments made up of the 13 Appalachian States, as well as a federal co-chair that is appointed by the President. The visit was a way to recognize Blackboard’s commitment to bringing high quality technology sector jobs and career training in that region.
Blackboard’s contact center opened back in 2006 and offers about 350 technology sector jobs in Pulaski county alone. The company is doing more than trying to turn a profit and help its employees earn a living. Blackboard is a firm that has even gone out of its way to provide things like thousands of books to seven different schools in the Somerset area. Blackboard has call centers in other areas around the country and they have looked after the workers in those regions the same way they do in Kentucky.