Albania, one of the best countries for multilingual call center outsourcing in Europe

During the last decade call centers in Albania have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially for the youth. They have been the best source of income for students that needed to pay?rent, cover university fees, and afford a social life. In a nutshell, call centers offered both economic and social independence to the Albanian youth in Tirana, and other large cities like?Durres,?Elbasan, Vlora.

Based on statistics from INSTAT (2014) and our research, an estimated 800 companies that vary from small organizations to some of the biggest employers in the country, operate in Albania and provide employment to 30,000-35,000 people.

City light boards in Tirana advertise major music?events?in the capital’s clubs and promotional campaigns from call center companies.

They draw attention to teasers like:

“We can help you achieve your career aspirations” or smarter ones like this “Are you waiting for a?job?to fall from the sky?” This is addressed to people without any job experience that is looking for a good job, but can’t land one because of the ‘no job – no experience – no job’ loop.

Some of the most tempting recruitment strategies are on-street promotions, where young girls ask: Are you looking for a job? Do you speak Italian? Feel this form and we’ll get back to you soon.”

Albanians are multilingual

The most obvious reason why Albanians excel in the call center world is their excellent verbal and written communication skills in Italian and other languages, such as English, German, French, and Greek. No one asks you: Hey can you speak any other language? They ask: How many other languages can you speak?

Italian is widely spoken at the level of mother tongue throughout the country. Greek is mostly spread in the southern and southeastern regions. English is the most known language. Foreign language is one of the A-Level exams along with Mathematics and Literature in high school. Meanwhile, Albania has seen an increased number of people who learn German, French, and Spanish.

Reasons to choose Albania as a Call Center destination

·???????Cheap workforce, lower income tax rate

The second most obvious reason is related to the cheap workforce and lower income tax rate. A call center operator in Italy would receive three times more compared to an operator in Albania. For many years, Albania struggled to create a proper model of doing business. Meanwhile, international companies in cooperation with Albanians took advantage of the free market access, strategic location in South-Eastern Europe, the favorable tax system, competitive workforce, and the supportive legal framework of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).

·???????You don’t need a university degree to get the job

Call center companies do not require a university degree to employ people. However, due to the reform of the education system in 2007, the majority of Albanians aged 20 – 35 have a university degree and basic knowledge of English and Italian languages.

·???????You need basic knowledge of Italian or English languages

After the fall of communism, Italy was Albanian’s first hope for a better future. Being very close in the geographical aspect, Albanians have since been familiar with Italian TV programs and thus the Italian language. Most Albanians have basic knowledge or understand basic Italian.

·???????Possible job for Albanian returned emigrants

The EU’s economic crisis in 2008 caused the return of many Albanian emigrants from Italy and Greece to Albania and the decrease of remittances. This led to confusion and increased the number of unemployed people in the country. Albanians who had lived in Italy found call centers a very good opportunity to find a job and get engaged in the job market in the country. Meanwhile, even the number of Italian students that study in Albania has increased during recent years.

·???????Albania – a promising outsourcing opportunity for English, Italian and German companies

The reason why Italian companies have increased their presence in Albania is due to the fact that Albania has favorable labor and living costs and is Italy’s neighbor in the east. Currently, most of the Italian-owned call centers operate with Vicidial and Watson computer programs and offer different kinds of client services starting from the payment of energy and water bills, market research and surveys, telephony client services, etc. The history of call centers as a new way of doing business starts back in 1991 with the opening of the first call center in the country, in the Albanian language. The then culture of promoting services and products through call centers was new but it developed with huge steps after 2005. In 2005, Agron Shehaj, an Albanian student returned from Italy after finishing his studies and opened Intercom Data Service (IDS), an Albanian – Italian-owned call center. It is one of the biggest businesses in this field and has employed thousands of young people, rising to 3,000 in 2015. After the opening of IDS, additional Italian and foreign call center companies followed and opened their branches or new companies in Albania, to start operating as middlemen between businesses and clients.

?Call centers in Albania offer services in the following languages:

Call Center languages

·???????Italian

·???????English

·???????German

·???????Greek

·???????Spanish

·???????French

·???????Russian

·???????Romanian

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