Model Career Centres to be set up in 15 districts for rural youths

CHENNAI: To conduct psychometric tests for job seekers and students, and to use the findings to give career counselling, Model Career Centres will be established in 15 districts in Tamil Nadu.

After the National Employment Service was transformed into the National Career Service (NCS), employment offices in the State were asked to establish these centres.

Stating that the Union government will grant financial assistance according to the State’s requirements, a senior official from the Labour Department told DT Next, “Career centres will connect local youth and other job seekers with all possible job opportunities in a transparent and effective manner with the use of technology, counselling and training.”

Accordingly, the Model Career Centres will be set up in two phases in 15 districts – Vellore, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruvallur, Udhagamandalam, Villupuram, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Kancheepuram, Dharmapuri, Tiruchirappalli, Sivaganga, Nagercoil and Erode.

“In the first phase, we’ve received approval for setting them up in Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Karur and Nagapattinam,” he said.

“They’d be staffed by competent personnel, enabled with necessary tools and infrastructure for effectively and continuously assessing the demand of skills in labour markets locally, in other States and abroad. Similarly, various training institutions will impart on-the-job training, job opportunities according to the youths’ aptitude and potential, connecting them online to job fairs and other possible interface with employees such as campus placements.”

The centres will also mobilise employers and other placement agencies to connect to NCS for meeting their HR requirements.

The official said that each career centre would cater to a catchment area comprising around 3-4 adjacent districts covering an area of approximately 100 sq km to map out the availability of institutions, industry, demographics and post the details on the NCS portal for general access.

“The catchment area is for the sole purpose of capturing information on the portal in a comprehensive manner and is not definitely intended to deny access of services to any candidate,” he added.

Career centres will also undertake market sizing exercise to estimate the number of job opportunities in their area, associated skill requirements and skill training capacity availability. “This will require close and constant interface with local industry and employers,” he said.