Students of St Louis School for the Deaf with their placement offers.05.05.2016, CHENNAI: Karthikeyan, a BCA student of St Louis School for the Deaf and the Blind, Adyar has had it tough: His polio-inflicted mother battles a brain tumour, his younger brother is mentally retarded. On Wednesday he saw hope.
Receiving an offer letter to join a private IT firm as a web designer meant that the 20-something youngster was ready to shoulder his family's responsibilities. Karthikeyan and 70 others of the college, who battle various degrees of hearing impairment, received employment letters from six private IT firms as part of the 'We Are Your Voice' initiative. It all started at the beginning of the year with a private firm expressing its CSR interest to Kasim Basith, director of training firm Opportunity Infotech. "Initially I met with failure as most of the companies I met turned down the proposal to interview hearing impaired candidates. Then a few of us floated the We Are Your Voice initiative," he said.
We Are Your Voice, a consortium of HR managers, held an informal meeting of employers and students of the college in February. "By then we had trained BCom and MCom students in Microsoft-based accounts and tallying sofware, and BCA and MCA students in web and graphic designing. The training was carried out with the help of three instructors who knew the sign language. When students demonstrated their skills, the companies were on board," said Kasim. A job fair ensued in April. About 20 firms participated and six made final offers with salaries ranging between 10,000 and 15,000.
Rev Brother Xavier Montfort, principal of the college, said he jumped at the We are Your Voice opportunity. Kalaivani, whose daughter Meyyammai bagged an offer with a Bengaluru-based IT firm, said, "Many parents tend to discontinue studies of their wards battling disabilities. Seeing our children become productive is a boost not just for them but for parents like us," she said.
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