A lot has been said about the recruiter and student gap. It has been an ongoing debate on how difficult it is for a recruiter to employ students who aren’t employable, lacking in the practical aspect of working , though theoretically sound. Bangalore being one of the educational hubs in India, produces students who are seeking employment after completing their degrees. But they face disappointment while looking for a suitable job, that squashes their morale. So, an initiative that will enhance employability is a boon, and a solution that many were trying to arrive at. As part of a state-wide initiative to enhance employability of technically skilled diploma holders, the Directorate of Technical Education, Government of Karnataka will facilitate assessment of 100,000 year final-year students from nearly 300 polytechnics. Bengaluru based recruitment platform HireMee will conduct both technical as well as behavioural assessment of the students.

This was announced by H.U. Talawar, Director of Technical Education (DTE), Karnataka. The heads of majority of nearly 300 aided- and non-aided polytechnics in the State attended the meeting.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Department of Technical Education and HireMee was exchanged by its founder Mr Chockalingam Valliappa and Mr H.U. Talawar. The idea is to create career opportunities for students completing education in technical diploma granting institutions as well as expand the pool for recruiting managers looking for talent for their companies.

As part of this MoU, HireMee will serve as a catalyst between recruiters and aspiring applicants from all government, aided and private polytechnic colleges in the state.

Once assessed, HireMee will connect the final year students graduating from nearly 300 polytechnics in urban and rural Karnataka with recruiters to facilitate the recruitment process with ease and speed along the same lines as the HireMee MoU with AICTE covering over 11,000 technical colleges.

“The employability enhancement initiative will help academia understand the gap in employability skills and support it with industry specific inputs. The students especially from rural areas will benefit by availing of the job opportunities available with recruiters,” said H.U. Talawar.

HireMee, being a Corporate Social Responsibility effort by Vee Technologies, will undertake the entire expense of this operation.

“After the technical and behavioural assessment of graduating students, HireMee portal will make them discoverable by recruiters for the right jobs.

The goal is to help recruiting firms discover diamonds among students in rural and urban colleges without any cost to the students, recruiters or the colleges,” says Valliappa.

“HireMee teams will administer a 100-minute proctored computer-based test for students within the college premises using its proprietary recruitment platform. This will enable students to identify improvement areas, bridge skill gaps and enhance their employability,” adds Mr Valliappa.

Among senior leaders who spoke on the occasion included Shanmugam Nagarajan, Co-founder & Chief People Officer, T R Parasuraman, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Industries Engine India and K Ravi, President of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Karnataka is a significant provider of skilled and technically qualified manpower. Finding jobs that best fit the aptitude of the candidates is an important aspect of creating job opportunities for youth.

Realising that most recruiters end up hiring candidates from large city colleges leaving out a significant number of bright students from lesser known ones in small cities and towns, this initiative aims to bridge that gap by covering urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

MP Poonia, Vice Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education, the apex technical education regulator lauded HireMee for helping AICTE in its employability enhancement initiative. HireMee entered into an MoU with AICTE to offer its recruitment platform to graduating students of over 11,000 AICTE accredited institutions in the country in September 2017.

In early November, HireMee signed a MoU with India’s leading engineering university Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and other Universities. HireMee aspires to complete deep and detailed assessment of a million final year students pursuing degree or diploma in engineering, humanities, sciences, and commerce and business management. On its platform, HireMee brings the results to the very doorstep of recruiters.

The assessment test covers Verbal Aptitude, Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Technical Computer Fundamentals, Behavioural Aptitude, Communication and Technical Core Domain knowledge.

The students can upload video statement of purpose comprising three video clips of 20 seconds each on the HireMee mobile application to articulate their aspirations, demonstrate their communication skills and share their technical strengths for recruiters to assess their employability.

The results of these assessments are in the form of a 7-digit score (on a scale of 1 to 9) which becomes an integral part of a student’s profile. The HireMee scorecard and video

statement of purpose give recruiters detailed analytics of each candidate, making possible the short listing of hire-worthy job-seekers directly from the HireMee recruitment platform.

HIREMEE ADVANTAGES

1.Direct connect
Connects recruiters with students and colleges faster and with ease

2.Video profile
Minimizes assessment time

3.Pre assessment
Students Knowledge, Skill and Personality shine

4.Minimal logistics
We go to hundreds of institutions saving everyone time and money

5.Higher Reach
Thousands of companies connect to millions of students

An initiative for social good, HireMee brings scale to the jobs arena, helping graduating students find jobs that fit them and helping companies widen the net for talent search to hire the right candidate.

The start-up is the brainchild of Valliappa Chockalingam, a fourth-generation entrepreneur and CEO of Vee Technologies, a firm that handles the growing medical billing and insurance payer services for the US healthcare industry. HireMee is a CSR initiative of Vee Technologies part of the Sona Valliappa Group continuing its six decades of philanthropic activity in education.

What makes HireMee unique is that there is a special focus on reaching candidates in deep interiors of the country. The industry is missing many of the rural ‘diamonds’ as the reach to remote parts of the country is just not easy.