At least 4,500 students from Jammu and Kashmir have been recruited by multinational companies under a state-sponsored job scheme.
Thousands of graduates and post graduates from the state have received skill development training and employment in the Indian corporate sector under a central government initiative 'Udaan'.
As part of the scheme, a mega recruitment drive was organised by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in Jammu on Thursday, where numerous students got opportunities to interact with corporate representatives.
Companies such as Reliance, Tata Motors, Wipro Technologies, GTL Limited, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz, Metlife Insurance, HDFC, WNS, Accenture, EXL, Converges, Aspire took part in the mega drive.
"Udaan is a scheme which aims to improve the skill levels of the students so that corporates would hire them on their own. If you see even here, there are many who have completed training and are in turn
coming to train the freshers. So I would say, if we train the students well enough, then there would be no need for quota which is what is happening here," said Bint Abbas, an organiser from the NSDC.
Under the scheme, 10,000 students have so far undergone training, Abbas said, adding that out of the 5,000 that have completed training, 4,500 have been placed.
Udaan seeks to provide the corporate sector with exposure to the rich talent pool available in the state, and also to increase the career choices available to youngsters in the state, Abbas added.
Since November 2014, 18 such mega drives have been conducted which saw participation from around 40 big corporates, she said.
She added that plans are in store to increase the reach of recruitment drives to several other towns and cities in the state.
Students at the fair welcomed the government initiative and said that 'Udaan' has increased their career options.
"This project is very good as it provides employment opportunities to several graduates, engineers etc. Here there are excellent chances of a student getting placed. If you see in Jammu and Kashmir, there are
very few employment opportunities, either in government or in private sector. So we are left to explore on our own," said a student, Sakib.
Some aspirants, however, voiced concerns that some companies were not hiring the students after training them. They called upon the officials to ensure that students were getting placed at the completion of training.
The aspirants said that such fairs need to be held often as the unemployment rate in the state was alarming.
Officials said that 12,000 students from the state would be trained this year, out of which at least 80 percent are expected to be employed.
