The British Council in partnership with Sannam S4 successfully organised a first of its kind job fair, ’UK India Career Summit’ on Thursday 29 January 2015 at Taj Lands End in Mumbai.

Over 500 UK Alumni from India, across varied sectors attended the summit and used this opportunity to interview and network with 20 key corporations in India. The graduates were a mix of recently returned UK under-graduates, post-graduates and experienced UK Alumni. The Summit witnessed participation from leading companies like Ernst and Young LLP, Mahindra, Centrum Group, Michael Page, Knight Frank India, Sterlite Technologies Limited, British Council and Sannam S4 Consulting amongst others. They presented career opportunities to the participants across the sectors of Banking, Consultancy, Manufacturing, Engineering, Marketing, and Human Resources. The UK India Career Summit proved an ideal platform for employers to interact with talented graduates through over 200 interviews of which about 30% Alumni were shortlisted. The corporates simultaneously networked with the Alumni where the latter shared their resume with the corporates and spoke to the professionals about career options.

Positive feedback was received from both Alumni as well as the corporates. Alumni have been facing challenges in getting the right job in India. This initiative has clearly helped them in connecting with potential employers and has brought them a step closer towards their dream job.

 Sharon Memis, Director West India, British Council addressing the alumni at the UK India Career Summit

“Such an event is a good platform to meet and interact with companies from different sectors under one roof. It provides you with multiple opportunities. These interviews have given me an understanding about what the corporates in India look for, from UK graduates like us.” – Sneha Nellikkal (Studied Marketing in the University of Bath)

“I had travelled from Chennai to participate in this event. Even though I did not apply for too many interviews today but I had a great time networking with the companies. It is encouraging to see the confidence these companies demonstrate, especially the start-ups, in UK graduates like us to take on larger and significant roles.” – John Jebakumar (Studied in University of Southampton)

Employers on the other hand found the candidates to be extremely talented, well - spoken and generally better prepared for a job.

“My overall experience today at the UK India Career Summit has been fairly good. It gave us an interesting opportunity to meet with some of the exceptional talent in the industry including some very smart fresh graduates from the UK universities. We noticed that these candidates had excellent communication skills and intent to learn. By participating at the summit today, I shortlisted two candidates who will get the opportunity to meet with other business heads to take this process forward and may even be offered jobs with us. As a UK alumni myself, I feel that UK gives you the right exposure to appreciate and accept different opinions and mind sets as you get the global exposure to meet and interact with people from diverse cultures. This is a very crucial element in today’s globalised environment,” Karan Desai, Head - Corporate Finance Group – Centrum Capital Limited

Both the Alumni and the corporates want the British Council to conduct many such events across various metros throughout the year.

Watch this space for a detailed report on the programme.

If you would like to work with the SIEM team to develop your strategy in India or to know more about our many direct and digital marketing initiatives, please write to Shruti.khanna@britishcouncil.org and siemsouthasia@britishcouncil.org   

Below is the complete list of the corporates who attended the event:

• Alstom India Limited
• AXA Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
• British Council
• Centrum Group
• Control Risks
• Dalberg Global Development Advisors
• Datum Group
• Ernst and Young LLP
• Gozoop
• Hepta
• HSBC
• Knight Frank India
• Mahindra
• Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
• Michael Page
• Morgan Stanley
• Sannam S4 Consulting
• Sterlite Technologies Limited
• Talenrang
• WNS