The State of Rajasthan is set to bring student fraternity and industry closer, facilitating employment opportunities for government college students, writes Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).
The Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Department has plans to set up a placement cell in all government colleges to help graduate and post-graduate students in getting employment. In India, few State governments have initiated direct placement for students.
According to the latest statistics of the department, about 180 government colleges have appointed one nodal officer as in-charge of all the activities in the placement cell. Plans are afoot to appoint nodal officers in all the 224 colleges affiliated to 15 government universities spread across 33 districts of the State.
According to Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Department official, these nodal officers are in liaison with the corporate and industries to find out the portfolios for which the hiring is required and accordingly students may appear for the interview.
Harish Gujarati, placement in-charge (Nodal Officer) of Government College, Beawar in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district said, “Placement cell in our college has been functioning for two years. We have been able to secure placement for at least 12 students per annum mostly in the banking sector.”
For a long time, placements were offered in private institutions only. Later, it started in few major government colleges. Under the direction of Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari, the initiative is now being implemented in all the government colleges of the State.
Identification of Companies
Currently, the Department is identifying companies and industries for collaboration in this special initiative of the Government of Rajasthan.
“The State government will decide on the type of industries and companies to collaborate with,” said Ashutosh Pednekar, Commissioner of College Education and Special Secretary of Higher Education.
The Department is also in regular correspondence with university vice-chancellors and college principals, inviting inputs to make the initiative successful in providing placement to the students of all the streams like Arts, Commerce, Science and Technology.
The Youth Development Centres, established in the government colleges, are providing soft skills and communication skills to students to help them enhance their employability quotient.
These centres also train students on CV writing, competitive exams, along with conducting mock interviews to provide them hands-on experience of the interviews conducted by the companies and industries before recruitment.
“Technical training facilities will also be improved and it will be imparted in emerging areas to cater to the changing needs and pattern of industrialisation and advancement of technology,” said Pednekar.
Presently, the recruitments in these placement cells are being operated as per industry or company’s requirement. Corporates and industries along with HRs from ICICI bank, HDFC Bank, LIC, LMG, Infosys, Videocon, CAIRN India, Teleperformance, Policy Bazaar, Nav Bharat fertilizers, Rajasthan spinning and weaving mills, Prisma health, Golcha minerals, JK cement, Saraf Infocom, Career Point etc, have conducted interviews of graduate and postgraduate students recently.
Although the initiative is in the implementation phase, it has provided jobs to about 50-100 students, revealed an official.
Furthermore, the department plans to hold mass hiring for students by organising “Job Fair” bringing top companies, industries and human resource organisations across the country. One such job fair is set to be organised in January 2018, said official.
The Higher Secondary and Human Resource Conclave organised by the Department along with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd on 21 and 22 December in Jaipur has been held on the similar lines.
| key parameter | 2013-2014 | 2017-2018 |
| Government Colleges | 179 | 224 |
| No of Universities | Govt 15 Pvt 40 | Govt 15 Pvt. 46 |
| Government Girls College | 41 | 37 |
| Private College | 1331 | 1626 |
| No of Institutions | Govt Law Colleges – 15 Pvt Colleges – 1,331 BEd Colleges – 774 SFS Colleges – 2 PPP Colleges – 4 |
Govt Law Colleges – 15 Pvt Colleges – 1,62qwaa6 BEd Colleges – 897 SFS Colleges – 7 PPP Colleges – 6 |
| Enrollment | Govt College – 329,130 | Govt College – 380,397 (2016-17) |
| Enrollment of Girl Students | Govt College – 136,465 | Govt College – 175,221 (2016-17) |
| Unserved SDO HQ | 46 | 22 |
| GER | 19.7 | 2-.23 |
| Financial outlay on HE | 1,038.53 Crore | 1380.14 Crore |
Development Indicators for Higher & Technical Education
In the academic year 2016-2017, the government colleges of Rajasthan witnessed an enrollment of 3,80,397 students, of which 1,75,221 were girls. In total, 9.32 lakh students were enrolled in both government and private colleges. There are 46 private universities with 1,626 colleges in the State.
In Rajasthan, Agriculture and allied activities still provide over 60 per cent of all jobs, with industry (mainly construction and manufacturing) and services (mainly trade, hospitality, Government and Community Services) accounting for the rest of employment.
A report published by the World Bank says that the employment rate of Rajasthan is reasonably high for both men and women than most of the States in India.
Out of 29 States, Rajasthan is at 11th position in terms of unemployment, according to Fifth Annual Employment- Unemployment Survey (2015-16).
“The State Government has been creating a number of job opportunities under various sectors, but the increase in the job has been more than offset by the rapid growth of population,” said Pednekar.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is focusing on every opportunity to bring education sector of the State at par with global standards. Her government has allocated Rs 1,380.14 crore for Higher Education.
“Expansion in education, medical and health, and housing facilities are envisaged creating new opportunities for self-employment,” Pednekar added.
Literacy rate in Rajasthan, as per 2011 census, was 66.11 per cent. Of this, male literacy stood at 79.19 per cent while female literacy is 52.12 per cent.
Latest Initiatives for the Higher and Technical Education, Rajasthan
– Implementation of e-Governance in Higher Education through Higher Education Portal
– Availability of Smart Classroom in colleges
– Provide Wi-Fi facilities to students and faculty
– To encourage Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
– Library computerisation in higher education institutes (HEIs)
– Spoken tutorials for FOSS courses
– Digital classrooms in girls colleges under CSR
– Establishment of smart science labs
– Establishment of Crowdsourced Social Platform for education
– Linking colleges with INFLIBNET facility of UGC
– Promotion of industry-academia linkages.
– Bhamashah Sahyog link at HE Portal
– App-based Dishari initiative for guiding students for competitive exams
– Learning English through UPER app
– To conduct skill-oriented courses in Government colleges with IGNOU.
Placement Initiative in Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh Government has set up Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKCs) in reputed engineering colleges in collaboration with the IT industry providing technical skills, soft skills, project management skills and communication skills to students.
JKC conducts Campus Placement Mission, in which students are made aware of the recruitment process of different companies. Mock group discussions and interviews are conducted for the students.
Currently, there are 43 JKCs in 23 districts with 164 participating colleges and 40 IT companies. According to its official website, JKC has provided job placement to 1,862 students for the year 2014-2015.
