Andhra Pradesh Gearing Up to be Skill Capital of India

Andhra Pradesh is set to become the skill capital of India. The State will soon have a Skill University besides multi-skill development centres in every constituency, to train and make the youth industry-ready.

Challa Madhusudhan Reddy, Chairman of the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), made this announcement at a press conference in November 2019. The APSSDC was launched in 2014 by then CM Chandrababu Naidu to promote ‘skill development and entrepreneurship’ in Andhra Pradesh.

Skill capital of India in future

The State has emerged on top in terms of employability among the states with the engineering graduates having the highest level of employability, according to India Skills Report-2019. AP was one of the preferred hiring destinations and one of the most preferred states of work by both men and women job-seekers, said the report, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Association of Indian Universities.

The AP Corporation was recently presented with a gold medal at a recent Skill India Summit and Awards function held in Delhi for being in the forefront in imparting hands-on training to students in various skills, organised by ASSOCHAM. The goal of becoming the skill capital of India draws nearer.

Employability level of B.Tech and B.E graduates from the state shot up significantly to 63.11% this year from 42.08% last year. MBA and polytechnic graduates’ employability increased to 47.18% and 45.90% respectively against 44.90% and 35.85% respectively the previous year.

Making youth industry-ready

Current Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s plan is to equip the youth in the State with the required skills to make them industry-ready. An action plan had been drawn for the proposed project. The Chief Minister had announced 75% quota for local youth in the jobs in the State. The AP corporation had been imparting training to students, from school-level besides identifying certain areas which had vast potential in the job market. An MoU was signed with the UK National Health Systems where there was a high demand for trained nurses.

Job creation in Andhra Pradesh

Based on a recent survey, seven industrial zones in AP have been identified to create jobs in addition to provide training to the youth. Employability Skill Centres (ESCs) had been set up in all 525 degree colleges in the State where courses like Python and Amazon Web Services were operational. A total of 665 students trained by the APSSDC were absorbed by the software giant Infosys in Vizianagaram and East Godavari districts in November 2019. Infosys was planning to organise special recruitment drives in Guntur, Kurnool and Chittoor districts as well.

The APSSDC had drawn up plans to further expand its activities in collaboration with academia, industry and training agencies to create top-class skilling infrastructure and make Andhra Pradesh the skill capital of India.