Employment fair at Calicut University

Calicut University is organising a mega job fair for the students of its affiliated colleges. The employment fair, to be held on the university campus at Tenhipalam on November 22 and 23, is expected to bring over a dozen companies and thousands of students to the campus. Although started in a bigger way, with 32 companies evincing interest to come and conduct mass recruitment, the ongoing global economic recession has brought a pall to the ambitious plans of the university. “We have been forced to slash the number of days to two from three,” said V.K. Janardhanan, Placement Officer of the university.

The university has ensured the participation of a dozen-odd companies. Prominent among the companies coming to the fair on November 22 and 23 are HCL, Maersk, Sitel and Reliance.

Most of the companies will be offering opportunities at the entry level. “That brings good news to the general graduates of our affiliated arts and science colleges,” said Dr. Janardhanan. As the appointments of second level managerial cadres are generally frozen the world over, MBA students may not find the fair an attractive affair. Similarly, professional students of law colleges, dental colleges, medical colleges, nursing colleges and teacher-education colleges too may not find the mela useful. However, for B.Tech., M.C.A., BA, B.Sc. and B.Com. students of the affiliated colleges, the fair is poised to provide a golden opportunity to bargain and land a good job.

Maersk, a shipping firm, alone has 600-odd openings. “But the job fair doesn’t provide any guarantee that they fill all their vacancies. They have promised to recruit if they get the right candidates,” said Dr. Janardhanan.

It is the first time in the State that a university is providing a platform for the entire students of its affiliated colleges to seek employment. Although companies have been approaching colleges for campus recruitments, such fairs would usually get limited to individual campuses. According to Calicut University authorities, more than 10,000 students are expected to attend the two-day job fair. The representatives of 70-odd affiliated colleges had attended a meeting held in connection with the job fair. Fresh graduates as well as those passing out in 2009 too will be considered by the recruiters. However, the university authorities could not elaborate on the kind of jobs that will be offered. “The outlook and demands of each recruiter will be different,” said Dr. Janardhanan. It was only a few months ago that Calicut University set up a placement cell for its students. Hungarian firm Trasset and its subsidiaries had recruited 52-odd students from a mini job fair organised by the university placement cell in March. While 42 of the jobs went to engineering graduates, 10 were bagged by general graduates.