SWAMI VIVEKANAND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT WEEK

For the first time in India, Gujarat celebrated Swami Vivekanand Youth Employment Week from 9th to 15th April 2012 by offering Employment letters to 65000 youths during this week. This Job Fair Week was unique in the country because of the proactive role of the State Government machinery i.e. Directorate of Employment and Training in collecting data of immediate requirement of skilled manpower in private sector industries and carried out campaign to make this information reach the employable youth of the state in those industries.

Many states including Gujarat keep organizing job fairs as a onetime event every year where the stakeholders participation happened to be a one day affair. Whereas Swami Vivekananda Youth Employment Week was meticulously planned from October 2011 and implementation process started from November 2011 onwards. By 15th November 2011, the officers of Directorate of Employment & Training, cutting across their individual branch domain approached the industries located in their area through CII, FICCI, GCII, GIDC associations etc. and could identify the skilled manpower requirement to the tune of about 100000.

Having found such a huge manpower requirement, massive publicity campaigns were organized to make this information reach skilled youth of the state through Print media, Electronic media, Radio jingles, TV scrolls, Banners, Leaflets, Brochures etc. This publicity campaign continued from 15th November 2011 to 31st March 2012. During this period, preliminary interview camps were organized at Industrial Estates of Taluka level and of District level between the Employers and Prospective employees. In the preliminary scrutiny, out of 126610 youths, 76843 were primarily selected and from January 2012 onwards, final selection interview camps were organized between the Employers and the Prospective employees. This resulted in the final selection of 65,000 youths in the state.

An

interesting

phenomenon

emerged from this Swami Vivekananda Youth Employment Week was that more than 20% of youth of the Socially and Economically Backward Class of the society could get Job offers in the Private Sector Industries. Many physically

challenged persons also had employment opportunities in various Industries that motivated similarly placed youth to take up training in technical skill up-gradation so as to get better placements in the private sector. Participation of Employers were from the sectors of Banking, Pharmaceutical, Insurance, IT, Chemical, Mechanical, Apparel, Textile etc.

The details of efforts made by nearly 400 Officials of Department from 15th November 2011 onwards for "Swami Vivekananda Youth Employment Week "are as follows.
Vacancies Notified No. of Job Fairs organized No. of Candidates Present in Job Fairs No. of Employers Present in Job Fairs Selection against employment Selection against Apprenticeship Total candidates who were offered job letters 150th 1,00,000 489 1,26,610 2287 52,000 13,000 65,000

Commemorating

birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the Labour & Employment Department of the Govt. of Gujarat initiated this special drive of industrial job fairs from 15th November 2011 to 15th April 2012 with active participation of

industries located in Gujarat. The Employment order

distribution ceremony functions were organized in Rajkot, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Surat during 9-13 April 2012. During the celebrations, at Rajkot, 13079 (10079 Employment and 3000 Apprenticeship), at Vadodara, 13229 (10029 Employment and 3200 Apprenticeship), at Ahmedabad 13380(10380 Employment and 3000 Apprenticeship), and at Surat 25312 (21512 Employment and 3800 Apprenticeship) orders were distributed in the presence of Honble Chief Minister of Gujarat State, who was visionary to drive the department to organize such a unique job fair in the state to celebrate 150th birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.