Youths find jobs in companies at fair
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Dr. Neiphrezo Keditsu (back row, centre) with the shortlisted candidates at the job fair on Nov. 18 at the Agri Expo in Dimapur.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 18: Chief Minister TR Zeliang has said that Nagaland has a 'huge potential to become a centre for manpower resources' that can cater to various sectors of service. He was addressing the final day of the Nagaland career workshop and job fair in Dimapur on Saturday.
According to the chief minister, Nagaland is a ‘young state’ with 65% of the population below the age of 35 years; most of the youth in the age group 18-35 are job seekers. It is important to ensure that they get jobs that would correspond to their knowledge and skill.
For historical and socio-economic reasons, Zeliang said, Nagaland’s government has been the only primary sustainable employer for the state. “With a young population that is dynamic and enterprising, Nagaland has a huge potential to be the manpower resource hub,” he asserted.
Other factors that prevent youths from acquiring sustainable livelihood in either the industry or self employment ventures is the lack of access to market, lack of capital for funding entrepreneurial ventures and entrepreneurship expertise to sustain ventures, he said.
For that reason, the chief minister emphasised on learning the right skills for one to get employed. “Very often it is alleged that our education system is producing graduates and post graduates who don’t have any skills and are unemployable,” he said. It is important to have a curriculum that has vocational components that will help youths acquire jobs, he said.
The chief minister lauded the department of Employment, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship for organizing the event with the objective to guide youths and help them find jobs. He said that the job fair can help youths interact with top recruiters. He has urged the youth to take advantage of the platform.
Also, Zeliang informed about the government undertaking a “unique path breaking study” that covered all the 74 blocks in the 11 districts to get an insights into the ‘actual reality’ and livelihood aspirations of the people. The chief minister congratulated the department for undertaking executing the study which he said would help the state design skill programs focusing on the specific district. 550 construction workers who were taught skills under the program of ‘year of construction workers 2016-17’ are ‘doing very well’ besides the employment it has generated, he explained.
Zeliang has assured that collaboration with premiere technical institutes continue in the future. He expressed pride that nine graduate engineers from Nagaland who were sponsored by the state government at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chennai ‘have done exceptionally well.’
The chief minister launched the website nagaskills.com during the event. It is a job search portal for youths and unemployed people to register and access skill development programs and career options online, using one’s computer or phone. Besides the portal a book about ‘aspiration’ and ‘capacity mapping study’ was also launched.
He congratulated the successful candidates who were directly recruited into private companies at the job fair. He said to ensure that the event is made a yearly affair so that the youths would have a platform to realise their dreams in the world of careers.
Neiphrezo Keditsu, parliamentary secretary for Labour & Employment, Skill Dev & Entrepreneurship gave the welcome address. He appreciated the chief minister for recruiting ‘young politicians’ in his ministry saying it was a bold step toward building a ‘great state.’ He expressed appreciation also the efforts to help youths get employed through the ‘year of construction workers’ program.
42 candidates have been shortlisted out of 62 applicants. Air Vistara recruited seven, Indigo five, Sanghvi Brands 11, O2 five; general hospitality 14. Out of them, 16 have final job offers. The airlines have a mandatory final round for which they will fly out the candidates. Hospitality has a final GM round which will be conducted through video conference next week, principal consultant for the fair Aditya Baran Mallik informed.
