Queue chaos at job fair

Date: 19-Sep-2009

India, Sept.18: Chaos marked the last day of the first employment fair, from where skilled workers were to be recruited, at the sub-regional employment exchange office in Golmuri.

Soon after the fair began at 10am, though queues had formed from 6am, police resorted to mild lathicharge to control the 5,000 candidates who had turned up.

Officer in charge of Golmuri police station Nawal Kishore Singh said they were trying to get students to stand in queue outside the counters where resumes were to be submitted.

Some recruiters demanded separate rooms for interviews. “I cannot conduct an interview under a shamiana. The employment exchange should have made better arrangements,” said an HR official of a corporate house, requesting anonymity.

Separate rooms were then provided to them for conducting interviews. Around 20 companies, including Tata Cummins, Telcon, Usha Martin, L&T, TRF, JMT, Ramkrishan Forging Tata Power and Lafarge India Private Limited, took interviews today, for which the assistant manager and deputy manager of the exchange vacated chambers. Due to confusion about seating, some interviews were delayed by more than an hour and started at 11pm. The interview process of some companies continued up to 7pm.

“I stood in queue for more than three hours to submit my resume and will then have to sit for an interview with 326 students. I have decided to go back,” said Gautam Prasad, who completed his bachelors in engineering from Pune.

Job Fair, target green Employers!!!

NEW DELHI: It pays to have a conscience. That seems to be the motto as Delhi gears up for its first-ever job fair for the green sector. The fair, part of an initiative to bring sustainable development into the mainstream, promises to offer career opportunities in a field that has till now been seen as the preserve of NGOs and bleeding-heart liberals.

The three-day event from September 24 to September 26 at India Habitat Centre is being organized by The Climate Project India (TCPI) and the Sierra Club both non-profit organisations with a history in the environment sector. Says Gaurav Gupta, Director of TCPI, "The idea for the fair came about as we wanted the involvement of the masses in the green sector. There are many NGOs in the sector but there's no connect with the mainstream population. That's why we came up with the idea of this fair to directly link the issue with livelihood so that more people get involved.''

Gupta, who claims that the green sector needs a revolution like the burgeoning growth of IT industry in the country, is hoping the option of earning a living will act as the catalyst. "The fact is that the green sector is an emerging segment where career opportunities are immense. So, now environment crusaders realize that they are also marketable,'' he adds. TCPI and Sierra Club hope the exhibition will not only disseminate greater awareness about the green sector but also serve as a platform for showcasing career opportunity. "More and more businesses are acknowledging that sustainable development is not only a lipservice but also a need of the future. But the number of employees with the required skill sets for sustainable development is still not enough,'' says the TCPI director.

However, the growth opportunity is immense according to the UK Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), India is the third largest market in low-carbon and green goods and services, with a 6% share in the $5 trillion global market. In fact, a study by HSBC says that green technologies and industries in India will attract spending of around $150 billion between 2008 and 2017. What this means is an immense market for those with green skill sets for instance, ILO claims that the country will generate 9 lakh jobs in the biogas industry only. Other sectors like agriculture, construction and energy are going to be equally prolific. And it's not just low-end jobs that are going to come up. Gupta says many jobs will be high-profile as well as high paying. "Employment trends in the US and UK suggest that green jobs pay more than traditional ones, which should be good news for those seeking a career in the green sector,'' says Gupta.

It's certainly a point that should come in handy for the fair. According to the organisers, 25 exhibitors are taking part, including names like WWF, UNDP, SEWA (which is also one of the supporters of the fair), Nature First, Dalberg, Biome, Selco and several others. And while the fair is not expected to be confined to an employment exchange, it is being seen as an entry point for students and other young professionals to develop an interest in the sustainable sector. Adds Gupta, "We hope that exposure to opportunities in the sector will not only encourage more youngsters to become interested, but that their interest will also rope in their families, so that it becomes a mainstream revolution.'' Next week should show whether Gupta's dreams come true.

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