Opinion: Outsourcing a way to success

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A few years back, I spent several months talking to mid-level tech workers about what was then a new trend: their jobs getting outsourced to India. Most of the people I interviewed were middle-aged white guys with big suburban houses, gas-guzzling SUVs, and families to feed. Most had never finished their college degrees. Out of work for months on end, they spent a lot of time driving their kids to school, surfing the web, watching TV, seeking like-minded unions and politicians, and hanging out in Starbucks complaining to journo-types like me. Usually, they insisted on paying for my four dollar latte. They were nice, and rather sad. I felt bad for them.

I have no idea how many of them ever found jobs. But a recent feature in West Magazine about offshore tutors for high school kids offers a glimmer of hope—for the next generation, at least.

So much of the outsourcing story in America has been about work and wages lost. But low-cost tutoring from Indian companies like Growing Stars and TutorVista offers middle-class and struggling families in the United States access to one-on-one instruction—at a relatively inexpensive $20 an hour—that used to be available only to the rich. This kind of outsourcing could help my interview subjects’ kids excel in school, earn diplomas, and stay more competitive in the workforce.

As Don Knezek, chief executive of the Washington D.C.- and Eugene, Ore.-based International Society for Technology in Education told West writer Scott Kraft,

Wonder if any of the guys I interviewed have hired Indian tutors for their kids?