AICTE Launches Job Portal

In a bid to ensure that students in non-metros are not left out of the race to lucrative jobs, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has launched a job portal linking students and companies. Designed for educational institutions in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the portal allows students/companies to access and upload the profiles of each other. Depending on the vacancy and suitability of the candidates, the companies would invite them to online tests followed by personal interview. Some college placement officers say the AICTE had announced this initiative in 2012. The portal will cover over seven million candidates across the country. S. Mohamed Tajudeen, Director of Placement in B.S. Abdur Rahman University, says the initiative by the AICTE has come when there are already several independent job portals functioning in the country. According to him, colleges in cities, which have access to a good number of companies, recruit students through campus recruitments or off-campus programmes. "We are trying to check if companies such as TCS and Cognizant will also join the portal. Such companies conduct online tests for more than one lakh students at one go and recruit candidates as per their requirements," Mr. Tajudeen said. The job portal will be a boon to students in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, where recruiters hardly visit, said an industry source. The portal, being the first-of-its-kind initiative, would encounter stiff competition once it got popularised. For instance Anna University, which has a dedicated placement cell, involves all colleges affiliated to it to participate in placement programmes. In the year-long process, the university officials collaborate with the affiliated colleges and the industry on a regular basis. P. Ananthakrishnan, placement officer at Sri Krishna Engineering College, which is one of the institutions that has access to the portal, says: "Usually we organise campus placements by coordinating with companies. Now, the AICTE will offer details of students online and the companies will directly call them.we are not sure how successful this exercise will be. We have just started."