MeritTrac launches a unique National Employability Test for the BPO/ ITES sector

Bangalore, October 7, 2007: MeritTrac Services, India’s Largest Skills Assessment Company, today announced the launch of TracSkills National Employability Test (TNET) to be held across 11 cities in separate phases. This unique initiative for the BPO/ ITES sector aims at creating a single platform for all fresh graduates from across the country to showcase their skills to the industry. The first phase of the test is being held simultaneously in Pune Hyderabad and Cochin on October 7, 2007 after an initial pilot in Indore and Coimbatore. The other cities being covered in separate phases are Chennai, Nagpur, Delhi, Hubli-Dharwad, Aurangabad & Jaipur. The programme is being endorsed by some of the largest BPO players in the country like Wipro BPO, Firstsource, Patni, Reuters and Mphasis.

On this revolutionizing effort, Girish Karnad, VP- Recruitment, Patni Computer Systems, said, "TNET is a laudable effort by MeritTrac and we are pleased to partner with them in this initiative. Patni believes in hiring the finest recruits purely based on their capabilities, irrespective of geographies. This initiative gives us the opportunity to extend our reach and hire quality talent from across the country. The candidates participating too have a prospect to showcase their skills, and prove their capabilities."

Any graduate from the batches of 2007 and 2008 vying for a BPO/ITES job can appear for the test by paying a nominal fee. The candidates making the cut-off criteria of the endorsing companies will have their scores showcased to the company and will be shortlisted for further selection based on the company’s requirements. Candidates will also get a scorecard validating their skills and also listing the areas that need improvement.

According to Madan Padaki, CEO- MeritTrac Services, “As a neutral skills assessment company, we are in the best position to provide students with critical feedback to enhance their job readiness. It has also been our experience that talent is not just confined to the metros and only requires a platform to express itself. TNET will not only provide an avenue for students across India to showcase their skills to the endorsing companies but also provide vital feedback for self improvement- a critical factor in employability enhancement”

For further information and registering for TNET, candidates can access the portal www.tracskills.com. The portal is a unique gateway for the candidates to access their test scores and find out their performance. Endorsing companies will be provided special access to test scores via the portal to select the candidates based on these.

About MeritTrac: (www.merittrac.com)
MeritTrac is India's Largest Skills Assessment Company. Recipient of the Red Herring Asia 100 award for 2007, MeritTrac designs and delivers assessments to evaluate abilities, skills and knowledge for both corporate & individual customers. Since its inception in 2000, MeritTrac has assessed over 2 million candidates for over 150 clients across 75 cities pan-India for industry verticals like IT, BPO, BFSI, Engineering, FMCG, Healthcare, Retail, Education, and Manufacturing & PSUs among others. MeritTrac is neither a Placement/Recruitment agency nor a Training firm, and is uniquely positioned as an "Independent" assessment company that provides quantitative inputs on the talent and helps in measuring competencies for specific roles. Its suite of scientifically designed assessments is used by corporates for pre-recruitment/employee assessments and by individuals for measuring their skills for employability. MeritTrac's expert test development team has generated over 75000 questions across 300 areas spanning Communication Skills (English & other Indian Languages), General Abilities, Domains Skills (Technologies, Engineering, Accounting, etc.) and Psychometrics. All tests can be delivered in both online and offline modes under supervision. Online tests are delivered using OnTrac-a proprietary web-based testing engine. The company counts some of the world's most admired & respected companies like ABB, Accenture, Aricent, Cholamandalam DBS, Cognizant, EDS-Mphasis, Google, HAL, HP, HSBC GLT, IBM, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, ITC, Microsoft, MindTree, NSE, SAP Labs, Satyam, TESCO, Wipro and Wockhardt. TracSkills – MeritTrac’s Individual Certification program for IT, BPO, Services and the MBA Talent Pools has assessed and provided structured feedback on industry-readiness to thousands of candidates across the country. TracSkills is endorsed by several companies across sectors and partners with academic institutions on employability enhancement initiatives. MeritTrac has 450+ employees and 1000+ certified test administrators operating out of offices in all the metros. MeritTrac also operates 21 state-of-the-art online testing centers "MeritTrac Assessment Zones (MAZ)" across 16 cities. MeritTrac assessments have been delivered in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Mauritius & Philippines. MeritTrac is represented by business partners in the USA & the Philippines.