Aspiring Minds, Gurgaon based job credentialing platform partners with Ringier Tanzania; expands its services to Africa

At a time when the job market is becoming more and more competitive and the fear of unemployment ranks high, educational qualifications have long stopped being the sole criteria considered by corporations while hiring individuals.

That however presents another big problem- how do employers differentiate among the abilities of the various applicants, if not by their degrees?

That is the exact gap Gurgaon based Aspiring Minds, a global skill credentialing leader wishes to bridge. Founded in 2008 by Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal, Aspiring Minds was set up with a vision to create a merit driven talent ecosystem and enable appropriate and effiicient job skills matching through intelligent and credible assessments.

That idea led to the birth of AMCAT, considered one of the world’s most widely taken employability test presumed to be helping over two million candidates find the ‘right jobs’ every year.

In a little over seven years, the team behind Aspiring Minds has managed to expand their operations in the US, Chinba, Middle East, Phillipines, apart from India itself.

And, this time they have their eyes set on Africa.

To make the expansion, AMCAT has joined hands with Tanzania’s largest classifieds and business directory ZoomTanzania.com to ensure better job opportunities for the youth.

Talking to Business Insider in a phone interview, co-founder Himanshu Aggarwal states that Africa presents a very interesting opportunity for the team. On being prodded, he says it is primarily due to the challenge in matching the right people to the right jobs are exemplified there.

“The reasons for this are two pronged. Firstly higher education is not very uniformly developed across the continent. And, if in places where it is, there is a lack of extensive education, thereby leading to a situation where even though you have a degree, you might not be ready for a job,”

Additionally, he claims that the partnership with Ringier Tanzania was an added incentive. “It’s fairly constructive and the association will be of the long-term kind as they are so well-versed with the problems plaguing the continent. Needless to say, their ground team is really efficient. That makes our job so much easier.”

With its twelve platforms on the continent, Ringier is providing unrivaled reach through its different channels. AMCAT, the job readiness credentialing platform, brings with it state-of-the-art technology and expertise.

The idea is that AMCAT will accurately measure job skills and predict performance in over 90 percent of available jobs. The cloud-based, data-driven, standardized assessment test evaluates more than 200 skills, spanning language, cognitive and functional competencies, personality traits and situation handling.

This will not only relieve the HR the cumbersome process of sifting through the profiles of hundreds of applicants or even worse zeroing in on the wrong applicant, but also enable that job-seekers are hired for a position they can excel at, and are aware of their strengths and weaknesses.

Julian Artopé, Director Ringier Africa feels that AMCAT offers a perfect solution for the increasing recruitment problem in Africa, “Besides, the platform fits perfectly well with ZoomTanzania’s massive reach. Recruiters finally get a great assessment tool, immediately showing them the best candidates for a position. Job seekers get a chance to differentiate themselves against other candidates and stand out of the crowd. This partnership establishes ZoomTanzania as the number one recruiting tool in Tanzania,” he concludes.

Image credit: Indiatimes