To get the defunct state-run exployment exhanges to play a more relevant role, the Karnataka government plans to rope-in private partners to run its employment exchanges.
As part of the plan, staffing firm TeamLease will set up a centre in Bangalore as a common platform for jobseekers. The centre will cater to engineering and management graduates and will also offer vocational training. A memorandum of understanding is being finalised, said Ramesh Zalki, secretary, labour department.
?Most employment exchanges lie idle,? said Neeti Sharma, vice-president, TeamLease. ?I think the outlook of an employment exchange will change. Each state is looking at output.?
In the proposed centre in Bangalore, the company would set up the building and infrastructure to run the service, while the government would contribute to the training costs. It would charge corporate houses a nominal fee for placements, Sharma said. TeamLease would conduct the training through Gurgaon-based Indian Institute of Job Training in which it had acquired a majority stake earlier this year.
Besides Karnataka, the company is currently working with the Gujarat Tribal Development Department for training and placements. The company has also held over 50 job fairs in various states.
?We realised that there is a huge gap between what the industry wants and the jobs skills of the people who come to us,? said Sharma.
The government plans to upgrade at least 10 existing employment exchanges this year with private partners. Eventually, all the 30 exchanges in the state will be covered in about two years, Zalki said.
He added that a pilot project had been carried out with TeamLease to revamp an employment exchange in Mangalore in October last year. Over 1,000 placements have resulted from the initiative.
?We want to extend it to other districts as well,? he said. ?The idea is to have a public-private partnership and help people from the middle and lower sections of society. We want to make them more employable and also create a common platform for employment.?
Over the years, employment exchanges have become mostly redundant with the growth of job search portals. The fact that public sector units are allowed to advertise vacancies also diminished an exchange?s role.
Getting private partners involved in training is being tried out through a central government scheme to upgrade 1,396 government-run Industrial Training Institutes.
Under the scheme begun in 2007, about 600 ITIs have been covered so far. Karnataka wants to add1,000 privately-run ITIs over the next three years by offering incentives such as a subsidy on the capital, government land at lower rates and grants-in aid.