The recruitment patterns of the voluntary sector have seen a perceptible change in its workforce profile, with more engineering and management graduates opting to work in this sector. Does this mean that voluntary work has changed into a pulsating profession with exciting growth possibilities, especially those that are technology-driven? What is the role of these professionals in this sector?

It has happened in spurts in the past. It has happened elsewhere in the world. But the trend is now strengthening in India. If you follow the recruitment patterns of the voluntary sector in the country, you will see a perceptible change in its workforce profile. At least 0.3-0.5 per cent of the country’s workforce is in this sector, and according to experts, there is significant increase in the number of engineering and management graduates opting to work for the not-for-profit organisations. This is apart from professional filmmakers, designers and mass communication graduates that constantly seek to satisfy their creative urges here.

Pradeep Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS, a Jaipur-based consumer awareness society, confirms that the hiring pattern has changed both qualitatively and quantitatively. He pins down this transformation to the increased flow of funds from donors to the voluntary sector and the Government and a stronger inclination of the Government to implement projects through NGOs. Therefore, the overall demand for people in this sector has gone up.

On the flip side, the scope of work of the voluntary sector has also enlarged to include more technical work, thus calling for absorption of technical graduates. But he also points to one niggling factor in the trend: Those NGOs that are in a position to afford competitive remuneration to MBAs do hire their services and it is also true that NGOs are hiring MBAs to inculcate professionalism as it exists in the corporate sector.

However, he questions the quality of these professionals. “Do MBAs from top business schools come to NGOs? In most cases, they have the degree, but not the same level of expertise.” At the same time, another development is taking place simultaneously: senior managers, having an MBA degree from top business schools, leaving their corporate job and opting for voluntary work.

Mehta’s doubts about top-class professionals opting for jobs in the social sector is answered by this year’s summer placement preferences at the Indian Institutes of Management. About 20 students from the Institutes in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata and the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, have chosen to go for an internship at the National Kidney Foundation, an NGO based in Singapore.

Ganesh N. Prabhu, Associate Professor and Chairperson, Placements, IIM, Bangalore, says that the organisation has previously recruited students from top B schools in the US, and the reason they are looking at Asian students now is for the obvious ‘cultural match’.

In India, Prabhu says, in the past, organisations such as GreenPeace Foundation, ActionAid, Basix and Public Affairs Centre have approached the Institute for talent either for summer placement or lateral placements. For instance, CRY - which is in the field of consumer marketing - needs professionals with brand building skills and has recruited MBAs even in the early 1990s.