Faced with the inevitable, these institutes are frantically calling recruitment consultants to make sure their well-groomed placement records retain a semblance of respectability
MUMBAI: With the financial market in turmoil, the US in the throes of a recession and a general downturn upon the world, the job prospects of those enrolled in the thousands of engineering colleges and management institutes across the country have turned gloomy indeed.
Faced with the inevitable, these institutes are frantically calling recruitment consultants to make sure their well-groomed placement records retain a semblance of respectability even as they topple down the leeside.
Until last year, it was the consultants who were chasing the institutes. Talk about trend reversal!
T Sreedhar, managing director of TMI Network, a Hyderabad-based talent management and talent acquisition company, says there has been a 50-60% increase in the number of calls and mails from various institutes this placement season.
Bangalore-based Bhupesh Gupta, a business manager in recruitment company CareerNet Consulting, is also inundated with requests.
The bigger and better known colleges are somewhat better-placed, but the bulk of the 1,600 management and 1,668 engineering institutes affiliated with the All India Council for Technical Education are desperate to ensure campus calls.
Take the Warangal Institute of Management in Andhra Pradesh, which has over 160 students enrolled in its two-year management programme. It faces the daunting task of finding placement for its 80-odd second-year students who have shelled out about Rs 5 lakh each as course fees.
A placement officer at the institute said only about 25% of the students had received offers so far.
“We are not expecting IT companies this time. Several financial services firms are also not coming.”
The plight of lesser known management institutes is understandable.
Even the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi (IITD), easily one of India’s top engineering colleges, is struggling with placements.
According to an official, last year, in the first seven days of placements, about 70-100 companies had come calling and over 160 offers were made. Also, the average pay package offered in the first seven days last time was Rs 9 lakh. This time, in the first 10 days, about 65 companies have graced the campus and the average package offered is also a little less.
In an estimate signalling the shape of things to come, Chennai-based staffing solutions company Ma Foi Consultants sees about 18% fewer jobs getting created in the organised sector this fiscal, down from its earlier projection of 1 million.
A recruitment consultant from Bangalore says that for the first time, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Guwahati have approached him with requests for assistance in placements.
Says Gupta of CareerNet, “Till last year, we would chase institutes with offers. But now the trend has reversed. There is a drop of 20% in the number of companies coming to campuses and a 25% decrease in the number of offers that companies are making.”
According to Yogesh Saigal, a New Delhi-based human resource consultant, till last
year, no college had to make an effort for getting its students placed. “That was the time when companies were crying about a talent crunch and devising ways through which to fill their requirements. Now, nobody wants to recruit.”
That brings on the placement consultants.
g_priyanka@dnaindia.net
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}