The Hindu Business Line : CII-TN to take up profiling of students

THE Confederation of Indian Industry - Tamil Nadu (CII-TN) plans to take up profiling of students to make the recruitment process easier for its members.

CII-TN will carry out this exercise in Coimbatore and offer the database to its members, according to officials.

This profiling of students is being taken up as part of the annual career fair that CII-TN conducts. The first career fair was held in Coimbatore and the next one in Madurai. The third edition is being conducted in Coimbatore on January 28 and 29, 2005.

The CII-TN is talking to colleges — both engineering and arts and sciences — in and around Coimbatore to tell them about the student profiling that it plans to carry out. The colleges can ask their students to take a Web-based test on a pre-determined date. The profiling will look at three parameters — business aptitude, language proficiency and psychological attitude. The students will also be given a copy of the results so that they know what their strengths and weaknesses are and how they can improve themselves.

The results will go into a database that CII-TN will build up, which can be accessed by its members. The members can short-list candidates who meet their requirements and conduct further tests, if needed.

According to Mr B. Santhanam, Vice-Chairman, CII-TN, the recruitment process was a costly affair for companies. Through the profiling of students, CII-TN hopes to bring down this cost drastically as it will be done through a standardised format.

Talking of costs, Mr Santhanam, who is Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, said the company would recruit about 200 people this year. Its recruitment expense, excluding the time spent on conducting the tests and interviews, would be Rs 2 crore, he said.

Mr Santhanam hoped that the profiling system would become the standardised method of recruitment.

Another project that CII-TN was taking up was to improve the soft skills of students and make them "employable," Mr Santhanam said. The students had knowledge of subjects and analytical abilities, but were found wanting in soft skills — like interacting with people from different departments, once they joined a company. CII-TN would take it up in five institutions in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore this year.

Mr T.T. Ashok, Chairman, CII-TN, said the Tamil Nadu council would finalise reports on a vision for the auto industry in the State and another on industrialisation of southern districts. This study was being conducted by Scope E Knowledge Pvt Ltd.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Industry Associations | Tamil Nadu

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