State forms cell for general stream college students to find placements

Panaji: For students enrolled in technical institutes and private colleges, companies arrive on campus to screen their abilities and provide them placement. Such facilities are generally not available in government and aided colleges, and especially those offering general stream programmes.
The directorate of higher education (DHE) has now established a training, internship and placement (TIP) cell to provide this opportunity in general stream colleges.
Besides providing students placements, the cell will offer students the required soft skills and skill enhancement training to help them score better with companies offering jobs.
Director of higher education Prasad Lolayekar said that skill development and providing employment opportunities is one of the main objectives under the new National Education Policy (NEP 2020). “The TIP cell is focused on implementing this requirement of NEP and on strengthening the industry-institute interactions,” he said.
The cell recently organised its first job placement drive along with the government colleges of arts, science and commerce at Quepem, Sanquelim and Khandola.
The drive was held for final year BSc students of computer science graduating in September 2022 in institutes across Goa.
Training, pre-screening tests, interviews and final in-person interviews were carried out. Around 100 students from seven colleges were also provided training prior to the placement drive in soft-skills and resume building at DHE in July, said Lolayekar. “This job placement drive was highly successful where nearly 50% of the 60 students who registered for the placement drive were offered jobs.”
Students from government colleges at Sanquelim, Quepem and Khandola participated along with students of Dhempe College, St Xavier’s College, Dnyanprasarak Mandal’s College and Research Center, and Shrimati Parvatibai Chowgule College.
The IT companies were offering jobs for the positions of software developer trainee, software testing, UI/UX developers, analysts, among others.