Kamata Pakistan joining hands with PVTC to facilitate blue collar workers

A contract signing ceremony between Kamata Pakistan and Punjab Vocational Training Council (PVTC) was organized at the PVTC Head Office today. On behalf of Kamata Pakistan, Mr. Muhammad Junaid Saleem, CEO Kamata Pakistan signed the contract with, Mr. Faisal Ijaz Khan, Chairman PVTC. Under the contract, PVTC will share data/profiles of its vocational trainees with Kamata Pakistan for exploring job opportunities. Kamata Pakistan will link these potential employees with employers, thus offering matchmaking services. The collaboration is one of its kinds to open new avenues for the unemployed and new labour market entrants who lack social and informal networks for securing jobs.

Studies reveal that workers skilled in vocational trade have limited access to employment networks restricting their ability to find relevant jobs. On the other hand, employers sometimes face immense difficulties in finding the right worker. Kamata Pakistan has provided a platform for blue collar workers to get access to job opportunities and blue collar employers to choose the best worker from a pool of job seekers. In pursuing its aim, Kamata Pakistan has joined hands with PVTC to open job opportunities for its graduates.

Kamata Pakistan (http://www.kamatapakistan.com) is a web and mobile based start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to the blue-collar (informal) job sector (cooks, technicians, welders, helpers, office boys, factory labour, sales persons etc.) by appropriately connecting with the right employers and job seekers via various digital mediums - website, SMS and social networks. It hence aims to generate livelihoods and reduce unemployment by facilitating the flow of information between the workforce and the employers.

PVTC is an autonomous body established by Government of Punjab through the PVTC Act of 1998. PVTC aims to serve its mission of poverty alleviation through Muslim Charity (Zakat) and participate in private sector through communicating demand driven skill training and enhancing employability for deprived youth. At present, PVTC operates around 172 Vocational Training Institutes (VTI’s) with annual pass out capacity of 35,000.  

Digital ways of hiring blue collar workers

Since long Pakistan’s blue collar job market is largely dependent on the word-of-mouth networks. These traditional networks not only create huge inefficiencies in the labor market but benefit only those with strong social networks. Thus, resulting in mismatch between job requirements and skill set of the employee.
A longitudinal study on Pakistan’s labor market has highlighted that such  type of market can perform better if flow of information is increased in the market. Inspired by this study and a research conducted by the Duke University and World Bank which concluded that the primary path out of poverty is income diversification which can be achieved by having access to multiple job opportunities KamataPakistan launched its operations from April 2013.
KamataPakistan.com acts as a scalable, sustainable, digital and replicable solution for both the informal sector employers and job seekers. It is a web and mobile start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to Pakistan’s blue collar job market (cooks, drivers, home/office helpers, electricians, factory/construction labor, cashiers, salesmen etc.) by appropriately connecting the right employers and job seekers via the web and SMS.
Through its innovative mechanism KamataPakistan is reaching out to job seekers through mobile phones which have 70% penetration in Pakistan. For job seekers this service will:

•  ·        Increase income of informal job seekers.
• ·        Decrease commute time for the job to save money.

At the same time, this service is adding a lot of value to businesses by:

• Saving time in hiring.
• Lowering the cost of resourcing.
• Increasing the number of choices available.

·        Providing them with a pool of well-trained workforce.

• Increasing the possibility of selecting the ideal candidates.
• Helping them in the hiring process.

KamataPakistan has received a fabulous response since its inception. Till now, it is able to add 3,500 job seekers from all over Pakistan, there are 125,000 page views of the website and 3,600 unique visitors. Most of the job seekers have received training in their specific fields from leading training institutions of Pakistan. During this time period many job seekers have gotten employed through the service. The hallmark of this period is KamataPakistan’s strategy of growth through partnerships. Many vocational training institutions have come on KamataPakistan’s platform for the placement of their trained graduates. KamataPakistan has started offering background check services of employees in collaboration with RiskDiscovered^TM, a renowned verification services company.
KamataPakistan was awarded Best Start-up Award at P@SHA Launchpad 2013.
One of KamataPakistan’s clients remarked,

“I want to give gratitude to the management of KamataPakistan. I think it is an excellent service. Excellent, courteous and helping staff as well, never saw such a service. I wish you good luck and a prosperous future.”

A job seeker Mr. Wahid-ur-Rehman from Faisalabad stated,

“Main 4 mahinon say bayrozgar tha aur bohat koshish kay bawajood koi naukri nahi mil rahi thee. Phir kisi dost nay mujhay KamataPakistan kay baray main bataya aur mainay un say rabtaa kiya. KamataPakistan kay zariye mujhay dinon main Rozgar mil gaya! Shukriya Kamata Pakistan.”

KamataPakistan CEO Muhammad Junaid Saleem remarked,
“The journey with KamataPakistan has been very exciting and challenging. The idea is novel to Pakistani market but it is changing how people make decision in blue collar job market. Starting from Lahore, we plan to do 10 in 10 i.e. cover 10 big cities of Pakistan in next 10 months”. READ MORE