BANGALORE: Anxious and enthusiastic job seekers stood in a serpentine queue for long hours to participate in the job fair organised at J P Nagar on Saturday.
As the fair began at 10 am, thousands of youths gathered with a fond hope of securing jobs. More than 4,000 youths participated in the fair organised by the Department of Employment and Training in association with Vasavi Education Trust.
Madhukar C P, an MBA candidate, said that he stood in queue for nearly 45 minutes before he could go inside and fill in application form.
Another job aspirant, who had come from Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, said that he has come along with his college friends as the job avenues are less there.
As many as 90 companies participated in the job fair and some conducted interviews on spot. All the participants were given counselling about how to face interviews. More than 5,000 jobs was placed from various companies. Most of the jobs in IT, BPO and other service sectors were for freshers in commerce and engineering
“So far, we have conducted 34 job fairs, including this at the district-level and 179 mini ‘Udyog Melas at taluk-level. About 4.8 lakh job aspirants have participated and 2.5 lakh people have got offers,” said N Sriraman, Commissioner, Department of Employment and Training, Government of Karnataka.
“We are trying to impart additional training like skill development and short term certification courses to bridge the skill gap between employers and job-seekers,” he added.
He stated that the government is making attempts to solve unemployment problem by organising such job fairs in the State and the Employment Department has spent around 10 crore since it was started in 2008.