Don Bosco Tech has long recognized the positive impact of Job Fairs on the underprivileged youth. Employment is the main focus for any Country/Society because just to give the best education or training to students is not enough. The system has to provide a platform for the students to implement and explore their skills in the professional field. With rigorous planning spearheaded by Fr George Mathew, Executive Director, Don Bosco Tech Society, Fr Joseph Elavanal, Director of Don Bosco Skill Mission and Fr Noble George, Assistant Director, Don Bosco Tech Society, a team comprising of the National, State and centre staff along with the communications representatives executed a Job Fair on March 20, 2022, for the centres of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. A similar event will be virtually conducted for the centres of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on March 22 2022. The purpose of this Job fair was to give students access to a large number of potential employers and to educate them on job search. It aims to open a pathway to the students who are undergoing and who have completed the training under the IT sector and Banking sector which is booming and happens to be the future for the students. The Pandemic situation has helped many to become tech-savvy hence there is more and more requirement in these sectors. Therefore as part of the organization’s growth, Don Bosco Tech is privileged to prepare the marginalized youth to face the job market.

A similar process was followed in both the states wherein days before the Job Fair, students from different centres registered online to participate. The list of registered students was then compiled by the organizing team as per the Job roles and centres. On entering the Job fair each student was given a form to fill up their details and proper instruction was also given to them regarding the Rooms and Employer counters allocation. Don Bosco Tech gave each student multiple options of employers for interviews. The Employers were given separate desks with signages for identification. Many employers offered jobs to qualified candidates on the spot and were seen collecting CVs of the shortlisted candidates.

It was a great opportunity for the students to participate in this big event. Trainees accompanied by their trainers travel far and wide to grasp this moment. Aiming to reach as many students, the interviews were both conducted on a physical and virtual platform. On this day, the job fair offered 20 identified Employers to connect with a big number of students. In Karnataka employers who participated were Grassroots BPO Pvt Ltd, Teleperformance, Teamroll Inc, Teamlease services Pvt Ltd, Konexions Back Office Services Pvt Ltd and Cognizant. In Tamil Nadu employers were Datamark Inc, Data Tracks, Tech Mahindra, RR Donley, Majestic Info Tech, Perfect Group solutions, Vasan Info Tech, HDFC Bank, Idea Institute of Management, Reliance Smart, KSV consultant, Tasa IT, Quess Corp and Global V5 Technology. Employers such as Grassroots have been associated with Don Bosco Tech for more than 6 years recruiting 200+ students. The cooperation of each employer was highly appreciated. For Evaluation, a feedback form was handed over to them to rate the overall performances of the students. Teamroll mentioned that it was a good experience interviewing the students. Teamlease expressed their concern on the language barrier of the students whereby this can be supported with the help of the trainers.

As far as student participation is concerned, a total number of 115 students in Karnataka and 158 in Tamil Nadu were interviewed by different employers under the job roles of Data Quality Analyst, Data Centre, CRM Voice and Non-Voice, IoT and Cloud Application Developer. Most students showed a sense of excitement, eagerness and enthusiasm while some showed nervousness. The Don Bosco Tech team were seen moving around encouraging and motivating the students before their interviews. The result of the interviews was promising with an overall of 38 selected students and 179 shortlisted and 13 on hold.

Below are the details of each centre who participated:

At DBSM, Chief Guest Smt Sowmya Reddy, MLA of Jayanagar, Bangalore and Mr Shakar KM Munisamy, Director of the Data Centre Operations, STTelmedia, Bangalore graced the occasion with their presence sharing their thoughts and motivating the students. Smt Reddy mentioned that every day at her office, many people came forward in search of jobs. The pandemic has resulted in many being jobless or slashed salary issues. She encouraged the students to take the opportunity and to use it to the best. She gave an example of riding a cycle. During the process of learning how to ride a cycle, we fall and get hurt but we should not give up but to continue to learn the skill perfectly. Similarly, jobs will be challenging with hurdles. She also motivated the trainees to adopt and not to give up. The most important thing to remember is to trust oneself always.

Mr Shankar Munisami expressed his gladness with Don Bosco Tech for skilling 4 lakh youths. He also mentioned the new skills and jobs that were created during the pandemic. He is happy to be associated with Don Bosco Tech and will continue to contribute towards empowering the underprivileged youth.

During video documentation, Sangeet a student from Hospet said “Many companies are coming at our door-step to interview us from different parts of Bangalore to DBSM. This is a good opportunity from where we can make a career. So, for all these, I am thankful to Don Bosco Tech.”

Student Waise Ahmad said “I thank Don Bosco Tech for organizing a job fair here at DBSM for the 100s of needy youths looking for opportunities. I personally faced three companies. Now, I am looking forward to get good results from the employer. Thank you.”

Lunch and tea were served during the event and everyone was gathered to the auditorium at the end to facilitate the employers by handing over to each one of them a small token of gratitude and appreciation. The students were then briefed about the plan of action for the coming days by the National Placement team. A vote of thanks was delivered by Fr Noble George who acknowledged every individual and group who was a part of the event. He mentioned that students were blessed with the opportunity to be interviewed by multiple employers on the same day. He encouraged them to join the jobs and to work hard. This was followed by a prayer song and a group photo session.

Accompanying the event will be a need to review and evaluate what went well, learnings, challenges and the need for improvement as this will help in the execution of such events in future in other centres/States. Don Bosco Tech Society has shouldered a noble initiative to bridge the widening digital, financial and social divide between those who have access to opportunities and those who are increasingly being marginalized from the new economy jobs.

To help Don Bosco Tech organize more Job Fairs, Kindly donate at: https://donation.dbtech.in/