Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants Limited (ODEPC)

The Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants (ODEPC) is a recruitment and consultancy agency established by the Kerala Government in October 1977. It is country's first government-run recruitment agency. For the past forty years, Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking under the Department of Employment and Skills, has assisted with international hiring. Its primary objective is to identify suitable employment opportunities for educated job searchers and skilled, unskilled, and semi-skilled workers in foreign nations, at a low cost. ODEPC oversees a travel division with IATA accreditation. Additionally, ODEPC offers study abroad, training, and packaged excursions.

Achievements

Foreign Recruitment:

ODEPC's primary focus is on hiring personnel for government agencies abroad. Between 2016 and 2025, ODEPC completed 4,253 recruitments for a variety of foreign nations, primarily to the Gulf countries, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and Uzbekistan. ODEPC hired physicians, nurses, and other paramedical personnel for a number of Saudi Arabian hospitals run by the Ministry of Health. In Belgium, ODEPC has hired 178 nurses. In March 2022, 22 nurses were sent in the first batch; in January 2023, 37 nurses were sent in the second batch; in January 2024, 35 nurses were sent in the third batch; and in January 2025, 84 nurses were sent in the fourth batch. 75 nurses are receiving Dutch language training as part of the project's fifth batch. They will relocate to Belgium in January 2026 after finishing their Dutch language instruction. Participants in the training receive a monthly stipend of Rs 15,000. ODEPC has begun hiring nurses for free in Germany. 

The first batch of 100 nurses trained under this program were assigned to Germany. German language training and travel arrangements for around 500 nurses are in progress. Additionally, ODEPC has begun offering free recruitment to Slovakia, Greece, and Malaysia. One hundred English teachers were hired by ODEPC to work in Uzbekistan government schools. There were 400 candidates working at Dubai World Security. In September 2022, the Labor Department organized Employer Meets in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in collaboration with the Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE). 78 companies from Dubai, 46 from Abu Dhabi, and 67 from Saudi Arabia were among the participants.

Training: ODEPC has established training facilities in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Angamaly, Kozhikode, and New Delhi to teach nurses who wish to work in English-speaking nations like the UK and Ireland in foreign languages including English and German. Approximately 5000 job seekers received training from these centers. In December 2024, ODEPC launched the TELK center for German exams. In January 2021, ODEPC opened the largest Occupational English Test (OET) exam center in Asia in Angamaly, Kerala. It is the first government-owned testing facility in India. Approximately 12,000 people have taken the test at this location thus far. 

Travel Division: Since 1990, ODEPC has had an IATA-accredited travel division. International travel tickets are now handled here. The State Government used ODEPC's travel division to transport students from Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Tour Division: In order to carry out tour packages in association with top tour operator Thomas Cook, a tour division was established in 2018 under the Travel Division. For people who like to travel both domestically and overseas, a variety of tour packages are offered. There are also luxury cruise packages available. Employees of government and public sector enterprises are granted special accommodations.

Study Abroad: This program helps students who desire to pursue higher education and find work overseas. This has been implemented for nations like the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine. The Department of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development, in collaboration with ODEPC, has developed an innovative scheme called the Unnati Scholarship for Overseas Studies to assist Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students who wish to continue their education abroad. Scholarships worth up to Rs 25 lakh are given out based on the student's family's yearly income. As of October 2025, 400 students have used this scheme to study abroad at international universities.