Business - The Employability Challenge

After devising IT skills assessment programme for Nasscom and a computer skills proficiency test for the Karnataka government, Bangalore-based MeritTrac Services has introduced a new initiative to address the “employability” challenge among the MBA talent pool in the country.
Out of 1,400 MBA colleges producing 100,000 MBA graduates annually, only 23 per cent of the MBA grads are employable, reveals a PAN India study by MeritTrac — an independent assessment company. On the other hand, India Inc’s annual requirement is 128,000.
Called ‘TracSkills MBA’, the initiative is a sustained assessment programme to provide direction to MBA students and complement their education in order to increase their employability. It helps MBA students prepare themselves holistically on every aspect.
The focus of the programme is to improve communication skills, analytical abilities and the behavioural aspects to create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the MBA arena, according to Madan Padaki, Co-Founder & CEO of MeritTrac Services. “We realised there was no structured feedback for students to assess where they stand. As we believe that what cannot be measured, cannot be improved, we developed a sustained assessment programme to allow MBA students to test their strengths, weaknesses and the gaps therein, to increase their employability,” he adds.
The programme will also guide students, who are usually clueless about their area of specialisation at the end of the first year. “All the tests will be available online on our website. The students can also register themselves with us for telephone assessment at our toll free numbers. Moreover, we have 20 testing centres in 16 cities including Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Cochin, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Mangalore, besides the metros,” Padaki added.
Apart from MBA students, TracSkills is being used by the IT and BPO sectors. NASSCOM, the premier trade body and voice of the IT-BPO industry in India had come out with Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) Tech test and was launched six months ago in an exclusive partnership with MeritTrac. NAC-Tech, which has been devised to benchmark entry level skills of engineering students in the IT industry, is structured at two levels; the NAC-Tech Diagnostic test and the NAC-Tech certification test.
The diagnostic test is a self-administered online test to provide candidates structured feedback on their strengths and areas of improvements.
The certification test has two parts. Part A is mandatory and has tests on verbal ability, analytical reasoning, attention to detail, learning ability, programming and written English skills. Part B is optional and has tests in IT Concepts, Electronics & Communication, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Textile, Bio-technology, Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering.
Candidates depending on their specialisation can take a test in any one area. All scores are valid for a period of one year from the date of Assessment. The company has also been awarded the ‘NASSCOM IT Innovation Award’ by NASSCOM, the premier trade body and the voice of the IT/ITeS industries in India, for its technologically advanced Integrated Assessment Centre.
The company is also in talks with Titan, ICICI Direct and Axis Bank and an automobile company for developing similar assessment programmes in the retail, banking finance and automomotive sectors.