File picture of students in an ITI practical class

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 3: The department of technical education is planning to set up a web-based central placement cell to help students of various disciplines to gain access to potential sources of recruitment.

The portal will help various industries and companies to get a wider database to choose their probable employees from.

“The portal will have information about students, their academic background and level of competence. This will help a recruiter as well as the candidates to interact,” said a senior official in the department.

To begin with, the website will carry information about students of government-run diploma engineering colleges and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs). In subsequent phases, information about students of engineering degree colleges, professional courses as well as general courses would be included in the portal, said an official.

The cell will start registering students as well as industries immediately after its launch. Students interested in displaying their details will be required to fill up prescribed forms, which will be made available in their respective colleges and also online. Similarly, potential recruiters will have to register themselves with the site to gain access to the database.

Gaining employment has become a major source of concern for students and their parents. “A student pursues technical education with the hope of getting suitable employment,” said a senior official of the department.

The official also added that if the initiatives could be implemented successfully in the state, it would be of immense help to students and the industry.

Despite having qualified students, many colleges, particularly the ones functioning outside the capital and major towns, are not able to take advantage of the recruitment process of various agencies. Institutes who have a wider reach manage to place their students in good companies, while good students from lesser-known institutes have a disadvantage in this regard. A placement cell such as this one will provide a level-playing field for all, said the official.

The BPUT Students’ Association had been advocating for long for a central placement cell. The Biju Patnaik University of Technology runs 101 engineering colleges across the state.