Coimbatore, Jan 10, 2022: Around 1,200 young people attended a job fair organized by the Don Bosco Job Placement Network of India in the first week of January in Coimbatore city in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The fair held at Nirmala College for Women featured 36 companies who recruited employees who had job placement opportunity in a range of careers including financial analysts, software engineers, sales executives and hotel managers.
The initiative was spearheaded by Father Gabriel Karunairaj, assistant director of Don Bosco Job Placement Network of India, in collaboration with Salesian Sister M Helen, principal of Nirmala College for Women, and Salesians who oversee job placement services in Trichy and Coimbatore.
Don Bosco Job Placement Network of India has been helping poor and marginalized rural youth find jobs since 1996. The organization is used by skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers across Indian provinces. The network has offices in various parts of the country such as Chennai, Trichy, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
“This job fair was an exciting opportunity for youth to meet and connect with local employers who are hiring in their field of study,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian colleges and technical and vocational programs help to train youth in fields that are hiring so youth can make an easier transition from the classroom to the workforce,” he added.
Access to professional training and workforce development services is highly valued by youth in India. The country, which is home to 1.34 billion people (18 percent of the world’s population), will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by 2024, according to the World Economic Forum. While India has the world’s largest youth population, it has yet to capitalize on this, leaving some 30 percent of this population without employment, education or training.
India has the world’s fourth largest economy but more than 22 percent of its people live in poverty. About 31 percent of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
India’s youth face a lack of educational opportunities due to issues of caste, class and gender. Almost 44 percent of the workforce is illiterate and less than 10 percent of the working-age population has completed a secondary education. In addition, many secondary school graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.
Source: https://missionnewswire.org/india-students-connect-with-employers-at-job-fair/