Switch Idea, a CII approved internship platform for college grads, bridges the gap between the hiring demands of the industry and the internship aspirations of fresh graduates through its flagship, NTAT (National Talent Acquisition Test). The next NTAT exam is scheduled to be held at Chennai on 8th April, 2018 and comes as a great hiring opportunity for employers of all shapes and sizes.
For a bit of context on how SwitchIdea works: students create a profile, businesses post internship to a specific criterion of students, and students who are "qualified" for specific positions can apply for them. Historically, employers were always able to use certain filters to draw students to their listing, but now approved employers can search through student profiles across over 3,400 colleges, by simply clicking on 'Show Matching Candidates" and filter students by domains, computer skills, availability, and more. For example, employers can search “Bangalore-based VTU student, who knows Python and has a 50+ NTAT score, who is available between 1st of March and 31st of May,” and immediately see candidates who fit the bill.
Designed exclusively to facilitate the hiring of qualified interns for all types of business requirements, NTAT helps companies assess candidates on various aspects, including their technical/domain skills, psychometric fitness for the job, communication skills, and general awareness. NTAT is uniquely designed to address the challenges in hiring of interns, such as:
- Students’ academic scores might not truly reflect a candidate’s potential for the job at hand
- Employers’ limitation in reaching out to the colleges beyond a specific geography and filtering the candidates per the selection criteria
- Budget limitations associated with hiring and training of interns
- Companies’ prime focus is on filling the experienced positions whereas hiring of interns often ends up taking a backseat
At a recent press conference, SwitchIdea’s Spokesperson, Monali Nimbarte said, “Essentially, hiring of a great intern from among the numerous candidates available is as challenging as finding a needle in a haystack. This is crucial because NTAT not only increases efficiency for employers, but also adds a sense of each applicant’s personality, coupled with objective and essential data for hiring. All they need to do is to register and run a search with their parameters; the search results are highly targeted and filtered to match their needs.”
In short, this pre-screening through NTAT addresses employers’ prior inability to efficiently search and target diverse internship applicants, helping hiring managers to connect with qualified candidates in a simple and convenient way. In addition, with an array of features for students such as Auto Suggest Internships, POs for college credits and domain-specific projects, SwitchIdea is clearly the most effective tool for both sides of the search equation.
SwitchIdea walks another mile with you even after you get the right candidates. It helps companies claim 50% of the stipend paid to the interns, under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). It ensures that the eligibility criteria for the claim submission is met by the employers as well as the applicants, both. As a result, employers get half their money back while the students earn an internship opportunity most suitable for their skills and aspirations.
In the past, NTAT took place at IIT Bombay, Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology Bengaluru, JNTU Hyderabad, SASTRA University, NSIT New Delhi, Maharashtra Institute of Technology and other tier 1 Indian cities. And now that NTAT is coming to Chennai, SwitchIdea is calling employers across Chennai to take advantage of this opportunity to hire talented interns for all types of business requirements.
