Bangalore-based Manipal Group has forayed into HR services and plans to set up 1,000 employment exchanges in the next five years. The company's newly launched HR consulting arm, iRize, is working on three factors that determine the hiring process: education, employability and employment. “More than 80 per cent of the people in the country are ‘working poor' or not employable and we are working on correcting that situation,” said Mr Rajesh A.R., Business Head iRize. India has a 530 million strong workforce with 93 per cent of the working pool employed in the unorganised segment.

Starting with the employment service, iRize launched its first employment exchange in South Mumbai in collaboration with Milind Deora's youth initiative in November last year. The company is in talks with several state governments for joint initiatives to set up the employment exchanges. It is also looking to partner with existing placement firms who will work as franchisees for iRize. Apart from this, Manipal Group already has 700 learning centres of Sikkim Manipal University that can function as iRize employment exchanges. The company plans to complete placement for 45,000 jobs in the current fiscal and 1.5 million jobs by the end of four years, Mr Rajesh said.

For individual jobseekers, iRize will assess and match their aspirations and capabilities to job market requirement and provide them with the right jobs. In the case of a mismatch, iRize will provide help to the candidate to bridge the skill gap through counselling, certifications and skill enhancement. Currently iRize also offers corporate screened and assessed candidates and by the end of this year, will start certifying talent in partnership with government bodies, NGOs, educational and training institutes.

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