Engaging young minds at ChemCareers India
Last month, over 300 chemistry graduates and post-graduates gathered to learn about their career prospects at ChemCareers in Mumbai and Chennai. Our external relationships executive, Abhiram Prabhu, reports on the direct approach the ChemCareers India team is taking to connect student members and industry.
Although I have been part of several ChemCareer meetings, it is always exciting to speak to students who are bubbling with enthusiasm and eager to learn about their future job prospects. These events provide a fantastic opportunity for students and I to engage with leading industries and scientists, and to learn about the trends in the industry and research areas.
This year, two ChemCareers events organised in association with our local sections have evoked fantastic responses and we were able to recruit over 50 new student members. Senior scientists at BASF, Glenmark, Marico, IIT Bombay, TIFR Mumbai, Chemical Weekly, Metrohm India, IFF, and MRF tyres engaged with the students, who were very impressed with the quality of the discussions and information.
In 2012, ChemCareers India was launched as ‘campus events’ to support professional development and our member community for the first time outside of the UK. This was initiated following one of the recommendations in the UK-India Developing Talent Report, commissioned by the Royal Society of Chemistry and its Indian counterpart – Chemical Research Society of India.
I have been part of this event since 2014 when I joined the Royal Society of Chemistry to support our membership activities in India. I feel that it has become a unique, inexpensive and successful way to deliver our core focus to engage with Industry and academia on the same platform.
After taking over the responsibility, I introduced new features such as a panel discussion with industry on trends in the job markets and how different sectors are performing, and a workshop for students on career mapping and finding jobs.
2016 was a huge turning point for ChemCareers in India as we changed it into a member-only event. We encouraged non-members to register as members to take part in it. Given the popularity of the event and the value it brings to students, I was pleased to see that over 250 students attended the meetings in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. The icing on the cake was that we recruited over 100 new student members! We also had great support from companies like Clariant, Huntsman, Shell, Indian Oil, BASF Reliance Industries and Reckitt Benckiser.
The season is not over yet for ChemCareers this year. The third event will be held soon and I’m eager to be there with the young undergraduates and postgraduates as they are introduced to the possibilities the world of chemistry offers them!
I strongly believe that ChemCareers has been a useful relationship-starter with industry and a strong relationship-builder with our local chemistry communities. I am confident that it will continue to be a great platform to engage effectively with both industry and academia in the future.
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