SUNDAY | DECEMBER 18, 2011
New forum connects rural colleges to jobs SHWETA SHARMA
18th Dec
t's not easy for students facing cutthroat competition to get a job in times of recession. And with new colleges mushrooming all over the country, the ratio between jobs and eligible students is increasingly skewed. In an attempt to balance this ratio and ensure that each student in India has a chance to build a career, two ex-IIT Mumbai roommates Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal conceptualised CoCubes.com in 2007. The platform leverages mobile and Internet technologies to bridge the gap between corporates and campuses, ironing out the hiring process in tier II and tier III cities in India. "My uncle, a Training and Placement Officer in a Punjab college requested me to connect him to my HR, so that he could invite them to his college. Months later, he told me that despite confirmations, companies never visited — probably due to the low visibility of new colleges. Later, when I was invited to this college for a guest lecture, I realised that students in tier II/III cities had a lot of potential. If given the right visibility and access to information, it could be a win-win deal for colleges and the companies. CoCubes was born out of this incident," says Grover. The word CoCubes comes from the first two alphabets of 'Connecting Colleges Companies': Co x Co x Co = Co3. Their technology puts engineering students online and helps them connect the right dots. "We don't have a bias towards any of the 2,400-plus engineering colleges in 474 Indian cities. Companies use our reach, knowledge and technology to engage and hire students from across the country. They can also engage with students 24*7 through customised profiles, wherein they can share articles and videos, run polls and contests or share recent updates.," explains Goyal. After an Rs 1,500 per-student subscription fee, CoCubes.com gets colleges online by giving every student and Training and Placement Officer a login and password. Every student has to be brought online on CoCubes.com to ensure they get equal opportunities; the student data is shared. Through this technology, the college manages its placements internally and gets opportunities in campus drives conducted by partner companies as well as other employability enhancement initiatives. "After registering with the website, a company can set eligibility criteria for the job and send to select campuses and students. The job post is first forwarded to the college Placement Officer; once approved, eligible students receive a notification. Notifications to students and placement officers are sent through SMS on their mobiles, which are integrated into the platform. Companies can save time by scheduling online assessments for qualified students during the campus drive. After the test, companies can shortlist candidates, schedule interviews and release offer letters online, all the while giving a standard experience to the student," concludes Grover.
(This article was published on the print edition of The Sunday Guardian edition dated December 18, 2011). Full Article available on http://goo.gl/isvTt)