The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) on Monday announced the launch of a new training and placement wing that will help IT companies recruit people for their facilities in Kolkata. The wing will cater to needs of both IT employers and employees.

The wing, which will comprise members of the BCCI IT sub-committee, representatives of ALB Consultancy, a placement consultancy company, and other industry experts, will visit educational institutes across the state to screen students according to desired profile sought by employers. It will also help in the selection process.

“The programme will help IT companies in saving on HR costs as well as time. We are going to have intensive training programmes for students which will hone their technical and soft skills required in corporate life,” said the director of ALB Consultancy, Kumar Shivam.

The first placement camp under the scheme will be held in the second week of August this year, and recruiters will have a chance to evaluate candidates from 10-15 educaional institutions.

The general notion among IT employers here is that though candidates willing to join the industry are professionally qualified, they lack in soft skills.

“During a recruitment drive in Kolkata, we found that several candidates lacked the proper interaction skill that is required while communicating with international customers. As a result, we have to spend additional time and effort to train those candidates. Some of them are not good in spoken English, and take more time in picking up foreign accents,” said the recruitment head of a BPO in Kolkata.

According to BCCI officials, the scope of the programme may be extended to other sectors such as retail, real estate, hospitality and some manufacturing industries as well depending on the success of this initiative, which is being launched as a pilot project.

Though the service will not cost anything to IT companies, educational institutions and/or students will have to bear the cost for the training and the subsequent placement services.

BCCI president S Radhakrishnan said the porgramme would not be Kolkata-centric, and the chamber would try to reach out to the interiors of the state.

Emphasizing the need to harness IT talent in the state, RN Lahiri, a member of the BCCI IT sub-committee, said: “At present, the number of IT employees in Bengal is around 50,000. By 2010, nearly 1,50,000 people will be needed. The estimated shortfall of manpower will be around 90,000 at that time.”