Common online test for IT placement in the works

Placement heads of around 35 colleges across the city met at the College of Engineering,Pune (CoEP) on Monday to discuss and review recruitment issues. They said that around seven companies were open to the idea and had agreed in principle to the common recruitment test. They plan to rope in more companies.

If things work out,the common test is expected to be applicable next placement season,December. As per the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) guidelines,IT companies should start placement in December. Placement cell officials said that a formal set of guidelines has to be framed.

Vijendra Pawar,head,training and placement officer,Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT),said,“We are in talks with companies like Wipro,Infosys,Cognizant,Mahindra and Satyam and they have shown eagerness to bring this into effect. As we know,placement season is a tough time not only for students but also placement officers and companies. If this practice is brought into effect,a lot of cost-cutting can also be done because organising these tests involves lots of money.”

The plan is to get the test conducted online so that students can appear from anywhere. Companies are expected to give colleges a set of instructions regarding the test in a month’s time.

“Apart from this,many colleges have been facing the ‘Day 1’ demand from companies. During placement,many companies want Day 1 for getting the best and the brightest students. In fact many companies refuse to come for placement if not given Day 1. To solve this problem,we are suggesting that Day 1 be shared by multiple companies,” said Anil Sahasrabudhe,director,CoEP.

Network expansion

The Federation of Training and Placement Officers (FTPO),an informal group of placement heads of about 40 institutes in the city,has been meeting for the past few years and discussing placement issues. To give it an official platform,the members held a meeting at CoEP on Monday. The matter will be placed before the University of Pune Vice-Chancellor,RK Shevgaonkar,in a bid to bring the group under the UoP network and invite more colleges to join the group.