With the growth of start-ups and IT companies in Goa in recent times, the demand for qualified professionals is moving northwards. In recent weeks the State has witnessed several jobs and career fairs which are organised by professional companies and organisations which are offering jobs to the Goans.
“There seems to be quite a few vacancies for certain specialities like Q /A, M Pharm, in pharmaceuticals, microbiologists, designing, graduates with knowledge in 2D and 3D computer-aided design. Graduates or diploma in nursing course, agriculture science besides those trained in skills of motor mechanics, welding, turners or fitters, plumbing and carpentry. Instead, what we get in plenty is BA, BCom, XII and X pass. It is advisable for them to get trained with any skills as there are plenty of skill development courses available today,” said Manguirish Pai Raiker, chairman, National Council for MSME, ASSOCHAM to Herald.
He added that they have just touched the organised sector. There are four times more jobs available in the unorganised sector. “Most of these jobs are taken by the immigrants from other states as our youths are not willing to take up jobs in the private sector and are waiting for the opportunity in the Government placements. Most of the aspirants after getting the job offer letters do not turn up to join the work nor do they inform to the company,” said Mr Raiker.
Today the government is overburdened with employees as direct and indirect employment constitutes one in every 24 having a government job. This is the highest average in the country. Our state revenue is majorly spent on salaries, wages, pensions, and interest and loan repayment. Thus hardly any money left for development works. The solution for this is to bring in more investments in the private sector which will help in creation of jobs and also help in increasing the revenue of the state.
Realising all this, for the first time, Goa Technology Association (GTA) in association with Padre Conceicao College of Engineering (PCCE) hosted a GTA Career Sprint recently. The event partner for the job fair was AARUSH 2018 – Lighting the Future.
About 29 Goan IT companies conducted live on campus interviews. Around 395 students from all the five engineering colleges in Goa, namely Goa College of Engineering, Don Bosco College of Engineering, Shree Rayeshwar Institute of engineering, Agnel Institute of Technology and Design and Padre Conceicao College of Engineering participated in the job fair.
Similarly, National Council for MSME, ably supported by the GCCI, NIPM, CIIFB and MSME held a job fair at Margao and Sanquelim this month. Trainers and mentors were engaged in this programme to train the aspiring job seekers on how to face and prepare for interviews.
In all 40 companies participated in the South Goa and about 30 companies in the North. More than 1800 aspirants registered themselves and about 900 were shortlisted and about 850 were given jobs. The letter of appointment will be issued in the coming weeks. Although more vacancies are available with the pharma industry there were no qualified candidates available.
About 2586 IT professionals pass out of their colleges every year from Goa of which about 650 are engineers. Barely 8-10 per cent of them are placed in Goa. Rest of them either go out to Bangaluru or Pune in search of a respectable job. The migration continues while the academia still continues to follow the archaic syllabus which has almost lost relevance in the ever-changing and dynamic IT industry.
GTA President, Mangirish Salelkar said, “The curriculum which is being followed today may have been drafted a decade ago. Technology changes so fast that we cannot match up the pace at what the colleges are teaching and what we are expecting out of the students. Consequently, if we hire them we have to train them for another 4 or 5 months. We are yet trying our level best to provide jobs to the deserving candidates in their home state.”
IT Minister of the state of Goa, Rohan Khaunte had recently said that we need to make our people skilled and in terms of skill development we are simultaneously tying up with institutions which are under Digital India, Niti Aayog, Start-up India which will be categorising themselves and creating an area where these people can be trained. “In addition to that, the Chief Minister has asked the bigger industries also to have some small cluster where our youth can be trained to be placed in their industry. So there is a win-win situation where local educated unemployed Goans can get an opportunity to be in the industry,” Mr Khaunte had added.
