Nalini and Vinoda, 2013 alumni of Government First Grade College, Bettampady, Puttur taluk, want to pursue Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) course, yet they were at a job fair organised by the Department of Collegiate Education in the city on Sunday. It was just for an experience, the B.A. graduates said, and added that the fair taught them to face interviews.
The job fair was organised for graduates of government degree colleges from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts who had passed in 2012-13.
Nalini and Vinoda faced interviews of an automobile company and an insurance company. The companies did not promise them jobs and they, too, did not reveal their plans of studying further. “They (the companies) just said they will get back with no time frame fixed,” Nalini said. They said that a 120-hour skill development programme organised by the Department of Collegiate Education in the last academic year did help them in facing the interview.
Madhushree, a B.A. graduate of the same college, said that she faced an interview with an automobile company. The company executives told her that she would have to face another interview in September. Mohammed Irfan, a B.Com. graduate of Government First Grade College, Kavoor, said that he attended the interviews of three companies for the post of an accountant. He wanted to study post-graduation in commerce through correspondence mode while working in a firm.
Devananda Gaonkar, Regional Joint Director of the department, said that provisional figures put the number of students at the fair at 1,400. He said that the exact number of students attended and short-listed by the companies would be known on Monday.
He said that he had convened a meeting with the representatives of companies, which took part in the fair to know their feedback on where the intervention of the department was required to make students more employable.
According to a member at the reception counter 28 companies and 12 consultancies had registered at the fair till noon. Fairs were held at SDM College of Business Management and Besant Degree College.
