Domestic job market gradually improving led by IT: Job consultant

Aspiring Minds co-founder Varun Aggarwal says job market unlikely to scale heights of pre-2008 era anytime soon

The domestic job market, which has been subdued over the last quarters, is gradually witnessing a turnaround, led by the IT sector.

“The last three quarters have been bad, but slowly the job scene is improving, especially in the IT and banking spaces,” employability solutions company Aspiring Minds co-founder and director Varun Aggarwal told Business Standard .

He, however, maintained that the job market was unlikely to scale the heights of pre-2008 era anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the company today organised the National Employability conclave here, which brought together employers, industry and college placement heads to discuss gaps in employability of fresh graduates.

Uttar Pradesh, which is home to over 700 engineering colleges, churns out nearly 1,50,000 engineering graduates annually.

“Good English and soft skills have emerged as the biggest gaps in employability of graduates in UP. They have also been found lacking core engineering and cloud computing skills by employers,” he informed.

Aspiring Minds conducts AMCAT (Computer Adaptive Test) to test the employability quotient of students.

“AMCAT scores are accepted by 550 companies in India, of which 50 are large firms. Since 2008, about a million students have taken AMCAT,” Aggarwal informed.

He claimed the company had helped 1,40,000 students land good job opportunities in different domains viz. IT, banking, life sciences, retail etc.

“AMCAT covers about 70 colleges in UP and we plan to increase this number. We are targeting to reach out to almost 60,000 engineering students in the state by next year with AMCAT,” he said.

The company will soon unveil its latest edition of National Employability Report, which is a lowdown on the status of employability amongst the youth in the economy.