Best Practice - Job Fair with a difference

Ramu beams as he looks on at the CCTV monitor responsibly. His job is to keep a watch on the security in ITC Royal Gardenia where he is employed in the CCTV monitoring room. He says “Now people respect me, as I am an earning member of my family." Ramu is a young adult with polio in his lower limbs with spasticity. Couple of months ago he was depressed and dejected till he underwent hospitality training organized by Livelihood Resource Centre, Bangalore.

On 10th October 2009 Livelihood Resource Center Bangalore along with Enable India and Action for People with Disabilities (APD) jointly hosted this Job Fair exclusively for disabled people. Job or career fairs are fairly common events organized to provide common platform for employers and job seekers to meet and match roles and abilities. This particular event was different because the employers were mainstream organizations offering very main stream jobs which are offered to any non disabled person. Only, these jobs were being offered to disabled people exclusively. This was the 2nd job fair of its kind organized by the three organisations in Bangalore.

Stanley John has severe polio of the lower limbs. He found it very difficult to commute to long distances. When he participated in the job fair he least expected to get a job leave alone one that was close to his house and involved very little commuting. He says, “CLRC helped me find a job close to my house with Enn C enterprises. I earn Rs. 4000/- a month now. Thanks to the training I underwent prior to job fair which helped me a lot in learning the job related skills and I am able to work well."

The process followed to organize this event was elaborate, detailed and intense. During the two month long process candidates with varied disabilities like Hearing Impairment, Orthopedic and Visual disabilities were identified, counseled, profiled and trained to understand their capabilities and interests. They were counseled both individually and along with their family members to help them recognize their potentials and aspirations and were provided with four days intensive training. The aspirants were sent to a selected few organizations for job shadowing to give a practical feel of work environment and hands on experience.

Figures at a glance

• 160 candidates registered
• 95 candidates trained
• 120 candidates took part in the event
• 60 short listed
• 34 placed
• 17 Companies took part

Different companies were contacted to participate in the fair. The organizations were provided orientation to the abilities of the disabled people individually. A corporate sensitizing workshop was organized for employers from the retail and hospitality sector to address their concerns regarding employing people with disabilities. Job profiling was done for each organization and information regarding number of existing vacancies was collected.

The organizations that participated in the fair came from varied sectors like hospitality, retail, Food and Beverages (F&B), Petroleum etc. They were all well known, famous, credible and top ranking companies like Café Coffee Day, Gokul Das Images, Glass crafting, Royal Gardenia, K. Mohan Garments, Kamath Yatri Niwas, Man Power solutions, Pratham Motors, Shell, Square Meals, Shree Venkateshwara Grments, Tilia, Vindhya Infotech, Daily Bread, Dusters and Enn Cee enterprises to name a few. Each candidate had the opportunity to face interviews with at least three companies and each company had at least five candidates to interview for each post.

Harish Kumar with Hearing Impairment got placement with Customer care at Reliance trends with a starting salary of Rs. 4500/- Having searched for a job for over two years he had given up hope of finding one so easily. When he participated in the job fair he had the opportunity to match his skills with the available job offers and get a well paying job very conveniently. He expresses his joy in the following words. "I am SSLC failed, I tried for different jobs for almost two years and didn’t really know where to go but I participated in the job fair and I was referred for the job according to my skills. Now I feel fortunate for being associated with CLRC."