Campus placements still a distant dream for law students in Kerala

KOCHI: In the current scenario regarding higher education institutions, the primary factor that prompts students to pursue a course is the job prospects it offers. Placements have been a significant aspect of technical education. Now, even ITI institutions and arts and science colleges are making a concerted effort to secure placements for their students. In contrast, law colleges, especially Government Law Colleges, still have a considerable distance to cover. Speaking to TNIE, Safi Mohan, assistant professor in law at the Government Law College (GLC), Thiruvananthapuram, says, Things are picking up. Though more needs to be done. In the past two years, four of our students got placements. This year, three students got placements in Infosys. It should be noted that of the 1,000 students called for the job interview, three of our students made it. We are providing them with training to skill them to take up the jobs. According to him, as the first step towards achieving placements in multi-national companies and also big firms, the college has been securing internships for its students with IT companies. Last April and May, 75 students did internships in different institutions through the placement cell. Next year, in April and May, we plan to send 150 students to Tier 1 , 2, and 3 law firms in the country. Fifty students will be placed with corporate firms for internships. Almost 25 students are now doing a hybrid internship in different institutions. It should be noted that all internships in law firms and corporate firms are paid internships. Vidyuth K S, principal of Government Law College, Kozhikode, also highlighted the efforts being made by the college to gain visibility. According to him, in the past three years, the college was able to place 28 students in various firms that include Tri Legal, Conga Software Pvt Limited, Lakshmi Kumaran Sidharthan Attorney, and a Canadian company, Mathew and Gupta. We were the first in the history of the Government Law Colleges to organise a management fest. We did that in association with the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We will be signing an MoU with them for the conduct of a series of activities. We have begun a training programme in association with the CCCI with an eye on the corporate sector, he added. He claimed that GLC, Kozhikode, has been having an active placement programme for the past five years. Though the numbers were fewer, the placement cell was active. We aim to increase the visibility of our college to attract the attention of the corporate sector, said the principal. However, even as these two GLCs are coming up with activities to increase their placement numbers, the same cant be said about their sister institutions GLC Ernakulam and GLC Thrissur. The activities of the placement cells in these colleges seem to have been confined to training their students for job interviews. Even as GLC Thrissur claims to be active in conducting training classes for its final-year students to prepare them for jobs, GLC Ernakulam is just waking up. According to Sonia K Das, principal, GLC Thrissur, the college had 14 of its students placed with a Hyderabad-based law firm in 2024. Explaining the difficulties in holding a campus recruitment drive in the law college, she said, Firms dont come to the law colleges to recruit employees. The reason behind this is that the majority of the students prefer to join the judicial services. Even in the case of the 14 students who had been placed with the Hyderabad law firm, many resigned to pursue judicial services. The firms dont want to take the risk. Then there are some who want to go for LLM. According to Advocate Mohammed Sha, chairman of the enrolment committee, Bar Council of Kerala, the main reason is the lack of quality. Why should MNCs or corporates come and recruit when the talent pool is mediocre? They prefer students passing out from National Law Universities (NLUs). I recruited five juniors from among those who did their LLB from NLUs. The other five juniors are rank holders from state law colleges, he said. He said that to be visible before the MNCs and the corporates, the law colleges need to either revise their curriculum or come up with activities that will see the skill and talent of their students honed.