Nasscom Common Entrance Test (CET) made mandatory for IT jobs in India

Students from engineering and arts and science colleges in India who want to join any top IT company will have to take up a common online entrance test (CET) to be conducted by industry body Nasscom.

While students of arts and science colleges will have to take a Nasscom assessment competency test, those in engineering colleges will go through Nasscom assessment competency technology test.

“The common test will be held from this academic year and colleges that want to tap leading IT firms must ensure that their students take up this test before campus recruitment begins,” said Dr Sandhya Chintala, senior director, Nasscom Education Initiative.

There are over 30,000 engineering, arts and science colleges in the country with nearly one crore students. Generally, campus selections begin around January-February in arts colleges and during the eighth semester (November-December) in engineering colleges.

The exam curriculum, being devised by Nasscom, will test the student’s ability in mathematics, etiquette, analytical thinking and logical reasoning.

“This is a completely industry-driven decision who are looking for talent ready for deployment,” said Dr K. Purushothaman, regional director, Nasscom, TN & Kerala.

Lauding the initiative, Lt. Col. Jayakumar, registrar of IIT (Design & Manufacturing), Kancheepuram and former deputy registrar of training and placement in IIT-Madras, said, “This will benefit recruiters in a big way as it will result in saving of money and time, besides standardising training material.”