BITS AND BYTES
Job fair for air hostesses a big draw

New Delhi: The Air Hostess Academy’s three-day ‘ Big Leap Job Fair’, held in the Capital recently, was a big draw. The fair was organised to provide on-the-spot jobs to candidates in different airlines, hotels and other service industries.

The fair was the first of its kind. The participants at the fair included Stick Travels, The Oberoi Hotels, Standard Chartered Bank, Met Life and several placement agencies.

The companies had installed their stalls at the fair, where they interviewed the candidates and recruited them on the spot. According to Sapna Gupta, Chief Consultant, Air Hostess Academy (AHA), around 15,000 candidates visited the fair. All of them were interviewed and of these 500 candidates were shortlisted by
different companies. The further bifurcation of the candidates and the companies was yet to be made. Explaining the rationale behind the fair, she explained:

" The aim was to provide jobs to candidates in different companies `A0under one roof." `A0"Daily, more than 3,000 students registered at the fair. We are planning to organise more such fairs in the near future,"`A0she added.

"The students are extremely smart these days and know exactly what they are looking for. We, at the AHA, came up with the idea of the fair keeping in mind the vast options the service industry has to offer. The fair is meant not only for AHA students, but also those who wish to pursue a career in the service industry," added Gupta.

According to Ishvinder Singh, a resident of Janakpuri, " There were more consultants than companies." But some of the candidates were shortlisted after the interview. He, too, has been also shortlisted by The Oberois for a front office post and is now waiting for the final call.

Natasha Kapoor, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, who is working as a front office assistant in a hotel, said that she too had been shortlisted as an airhostess for an airline.

According to Gupta, except for the post of airhostess, for which a minimum plus two is required, the candidates have to be graduates for other jobs. — TNS

Panel for engg, architecture courses recast

New Delhi: A government panel that oversees admissions to state-run engineering, pharmacy and architecture courses has been reconstituted and shifted to the Capital to streamline its functioning.

The reconstituted Central Counselling Board (CCB) under the chairmanship of Delhi College of Engineering Principal P.B. Sharma would function from New Delhi with a new secretariat, an official release said recently.

"With the reshuffling of the CCB, a new secretariat for the board has been established in Delhi College of Engineering and a control room set up to facilitate day-to-day work," the statement said.

The secretariat was earlier functioning from Allahabad though most of the work was being done in the Capital. "With the new board having taken charge, we have completed the first phase of counselling to familiarise prospective students with the courses,"Sharma said.

On the basis of the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination, the board grants admission to colleges under its care.

These include 18 national institutes of technologies, 15 deemed universities, three Indian institutes of information technology, the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) at Pilani and Goa, the Thapar Institute of Technology at Patiala and the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture.

Of the 46,000 candidates clearing the written examination in 2004, about 26,000 have registered through the online off-campus familiarisation phase held from June 26-July 3, Sharma said. "From July 7, we will hold the second phase of counselling on the courses and colleges. We have fixed 16 centres for students to register their choice," he added. — IANS