Thus, you can take up certificate courses in fire technology soon after passing your matriculation, a graduate degree course after 10+2 level, a postgraduate diploma programme after graduation or even several crash courses. Successful completion of fire safety courses in India opens up opportunities not only to engage oneself in the adventurous job of saving life and property, but also to earn handsomely to lead a satisfactory life.

Job Prospects

After completing fire technology courses in India, you can be placed in diverse arenas of work. While you can get opportunity in both Government and private sectors, you may also choose to become an independent fire consultant after completing a relevant fire technology course. You may get a Government job in the Defence forces, Railways, Airports Authority of India, Electricity Boards, C.I.S.F., ONGC, mines, refineries, Petrochemical complexes, municipal bodies and many such organisations. As safety is a major concern for most private organisations and industries, they also hire fire personnel to protect their resources from any untoward incident. The scope of working independently and embarking on entrepreneurial projects is also enormous after completing fire safety courses in India. Thus, one can become a fire surveyor or fire consultant in various sectors or become a manufacturer of fire equipment, safety equipment, installation of fire detection and suppression system and other necessary goods.

Scope

• Imparting professional training in fire protection, fire engineering, fire safety, fire fighting, disaster management and security and safety management to personnel in industrial, commercial and similar organisation in private and public sectors, Government and Municipal fire services and also for neighbouring countries in Asia and far East, in due course.

• Providing qualified and well- trained fire service and security personnel for the above mentioned organisations.

• Conducting seminars and similar programmes on fire safety, security and safety management, disaster management, fire protection engineering and technology.

• To liase with work class various fire fighting, industrial securities and safety agencies of national and international repute and arrange certification for our students wherever necessary.

• To upgrade and modernise the fire fighting equipment through research and development.

• To advise the Government and the agencies in framing policies in fire management and security and safety.

• National Center for Professional Training, Kerala

• Fire and Safety Technology, Kochi

• National Institute of Fire and Safety, Kochi

Besides a good salary, the government is also offering job contract for two years. Headhunters, appointed by the government have started scouting for 1,000 professionals for 34 functional areas specified by the Games secretariat.

The organising committee has appointed three headhunters -- ABC Consultants, Ma Foi Management Consultants and a consortium of TeamLease and PeopleStrong -- for these jobs. Headhunters have begun the recruiting process for about 1,000 jobs across all levels of senior, middle and junior management roles. A senior official in the organising committee, who did not wish to be identified, said that selected vendors have been appointed to suggest names and budgets for professionals that need to be recruited. "We have begun recruiting and interviews are being conducted for top posts," he told ET.

The government has still not made the financial disclosure on salaries that are being offered, but the selected headhunters suggest that there is a lot of excitement to work, for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, across all sectors. Shiv Agarwal, chief executive officer of ABC Consultants said that even though the job will be offered for two-year contract, industry professionals consider this as a fine opportunity to work for a truly global level sporting event.

Beating the blues, the premier B-school not only hosted a total of 114 companies for its summer placements on the campus this year, which is an increase of 15% over that of last year, but also threw up an exciting trend of strategy and consulting-based roles taking the cake among the students.

Top consulting firms like McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, PriceWaterhouse Coopers as well as conglomerates like the Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group and RPG lapped up the students.

While substantial representation was witnessed in verticals and sectors like supply chain management and operations, IT & systems, human resources, the bulk of the offers as well as a majority of the student preferences was in the four sectors of strategy and consulting, finance, marketing and entrepreneurial ventures.

In a break-up of sector-wise placements, while Strategy & Consulting ruled at 34%, the finance sector was a close second with 32% of the batch preferring to intern in finance roles within investment banks, PE firms and other banking and financial services institutions.

The slowdown has also led organisations to take stock of the situation and restructure their working conditions. The hiring plans in the IT/ITeS have been attracting much attention, since they are associated with massive hiring of fresh talent. "Now, almost 40% hiring is through employee referrals and 80% of our promotions are internal," says Genpact senior VP and HR head Piyush Mehta. "We are more inclined towards it, as apart from saving time on comprehensive background checks and scanning, it also helps in better camaraderie among employees."

When a candidate is employed through a referral programme, there is a less probability of the candidate leaving the organisation in a small span of time--a fact well established at Genpact, which has a low attrition rate of 25%. That apart, hiring through referral route also saves time searching, headhunting and calling candidates.

Recruiting people and retaining them is becoming a challenge for the HR departments across sectors. In such a scenario, IT/ITeS industry has chosen this mode to ensure effective hiring. "There has been an increase in hiring through employee referrals by 50% across sectors, and at all levels," says Expertus (a talent management and recruitment firm) sales and marketing VP A Sudarshan. "The IT/ITeS sector takes the lead in it. At a time when most companies are looking at cost-optimization, it is a definite tool of cutting on expenses, but it has an adverse impact on head-hunting and recruiting firms like us."

MetLife, Max New York Life, Tata AIG, Bharti AXA and Aviva are among the insurance companies that are in a ramp-up mode as the sector looks at boosting its staffing levels by around 50% over the next few months. The industry could hire up to 3,00,000 financial planning advisors and some 30,000 managers by the end of the current fiscal, as it girds up to tap a virgin market, industry officials say.

The sector, dominated by stateowned LIC for a long time, may have the financial performance to justify its hiring spree. Private players have recorded a growth rate of around 42% in first-time premium collections for the first-half of the current

fiscal, according to data available with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda). Despite the downturn in the financial services sector, insurance companies continue to look at launching new schemes.

While State Bank of India (SBI), Uco Bank, Andhra Bank, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank have set up such institutes, Union Bank of India has started the process of setting up a similar institute in the state.

Since the state government is focussing on the self employment of the youth and most of the banks have not opened their EDIs, they have been asked to expedite the process, official sources said.

The banks which have not yet opened their EDI should set up such institutes in the rented premises without further delay. They can also seek land/shed/building in the districts where they propose to set up these institutes.

The interested banks will have to apply to the collector of the concerned district through the District Industries Centre (DICs).They can take support or assistance from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development( Nabard) and involve it in the process while opening such institutes. This issue figured in the recent meeting of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) in October.

Big companies like Hewlett Packard, Goldman Sachs, DHL, Barclays Bank and American express have slashed jobs in the last two months. The latest cut of 50,000 jobs globally by Citigroup's is by far the largest but the bank says the impact in India will be minimal.

But will India see layoffs in similar scale to the US & Europe? Human resource consultants say India is surely not isolated but there will be no mass lay offs in the country.

"''Mid term and long term is fine. Offshoring will continue, so jobs will be created'," says Ma Foi Management Consultants Business Head Anil Kumar.

He says that only the growth rate in job creation may get hit in some sectors.

''We will say not job cuts but job growth may get impacted in hospitality and real estate, IT," Anil Kumar adds.

There are actually some sectors which are giving us a reason to cheer. A recent survey done by HR firm Ma Foi says public sector and government undertakings are going to be the saviours.

No surprises, in just last one week, firms have unveiled plans of hiring some 40,000 people in the country.

In finance sector, the State Bank of India (SBI) is set to hire 20,000 new hands, Bank of India to hire 10,000 people, private insurer MetLife India is looking to recruit about 2,000 managers and a whopping 30,000 advisors by March.

In consultancy sector - Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is looking to hire 3,500 employees, Accenture will hire 10,000 people. Even the Infotech companies - TCS and Infosys will hire 25000-30,000 people, TCS too will absorb 8-10,000 people.

Big daddy of manufacturing sector - L&T plans to take 10,000 people and Maruti will hire 1,000 fresh hands.

A global recession might slow down the Indian job market but it will end up creating some opportunities also.

Job fairs are a great way to explore potential employment opportunities and learn more about companies who are actively hiring in your neighbourhood. Many people see it as something as serious as a first interview, while others view it as an opportunity to gather information about potential employers. Regardless of what reason you have for attending, there are a few important things to keep in mind before, during, and after the job fair to make it successful for you.
Before the fair

Find out what kind of companies will be there. The more information you can gather beforehand, the more successful the job fair will turn out to be for you. Find out what businesses are going to be at the job fair, and spend some time doing some research about them. What types of jobs do they offer? What kind of people are they looking for and what kinds of skills do these people need to have?

Develop some questions you'd like to ask employers. Narrow down your list of businesses to include those who have positions you are interested in, or are businesses you think you might like to work for. Then list some questions you would like to ask the company representative at the job fair.

Another important aspect is checking your resume. Proofread your resume, at least twice, to find any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Even if you think there are no errors, have someone else look it over too. Don't let errors overshadow your qualifications for a job! If you don't already have one, it is a good idea to put a resume together for a job fair.

Infosys Technologies executive co-chairman, Nandan Nilekani said that growth of IT sector would obviously be less than previous years following world economic crisis and global slowdown. He was speaking at the India Economic Summit, organized by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He hoped that industry would emerge stronger after slowdown.

He said that the company is not planning to start retrenchment and would recruit more staff as per its earlier planning. Infosys would train its staff with modern technology and sophisticated methods of education. He said that the domestic IT industry is based on a global delivery model and there is no pricing and billing pressure.