LinkedIn has been trying to make an impression in the Indian job industry with a slew of services like the Placements and Starter Pack. The Indian job market is not very straight forward, and competing companies like Naukri.com and Timesjobs already have a strong user base.
To take on such services, LinkedIn has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with the Human Resource Development Ministry to create and market more job opportunities for students across India.
LinkedIn has its own Jobs portal where companies and recruiters can post their company openings. Job seekers can also directly apply through their LinkedIn profiles, making it easier for the seekers and cutting down time on creating CVs.
Millions of students graduate every year, and number of jobs available in the market are relatively low. Also, a lot of students get misguided after graduation and pursue something they are not fit for, due to shortage of opportunities. Through this MoU, the Placements product will be adopted by all Indian colleges affiliated with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
Akshay Kothari, Head of Product – LinkedIn India, said “Our objective with Placements is to help India’s best talent get access to job opportunities, regardless of their location. With this partnership, we are excited to see our vision quickly become a reality.”
LinkedIn Placements provides an equal opportunity to all students, regardless of their location or college, through an online assessment test, which gives them access to thousands of openings in 35 top corporates in the country. This test is standardized across campuses and does not have any conditions and filters.
The service has already received a lot of interest from students and job seekers, with 1.2 million job applications in less than 2 months. Placements also makes it a tad easier for fresh graduates to apply to dream companies, that were out of reach earlier.
Will AICTE be able to help students?
The main issue with colleges in India is infrastructure and adherence to guidelines. AICTE might direct all the affiliated colleges to start this Placements service immediately, but the infrastructure and the processes will make it painfully long for students.
Especially right now, when the market is at its high, providing this opportunity to students will make it extremely competitive and beneficial for the companies. However, a lot of colleges lack proper conditions to allow their students to even take the test.
Another issue is the quality of education. The top colleges in India have better quality of education, giving them an advantage over the lesser known colleges. In the end, the more educated the student, the easier it is to get placed in these top companies.
The best solution would be to combine Placements with Khan Academy or Coursera to allow students to prepare and compete with everyone around India. This will ensure everyone is at par for an exam that is the same across different colleges.
