The Andhra Pradesh government is building a unique Skill Cascading Ecosystem with industry-academia tie-ups to create an aspirational brand in skilling youth and making them job-ready.
The existing technical and vocational education and training institutes in the State will become part of this cascading ecosystem, with the proposed Skill University at the top of the pyramid and various industries serving as spokes for training youth in different vocations.
“We are now shifting our approach from supply-driven to demand-driven skilling to meet the requirements of the industry. For this, we are collaborating with industries in a very big way to build the latest skill infrastructure,” said A.P. State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) Chairman and Principal Secretary, Skill Development and Training Department S. Suresh Kumar.
“The Cascading Ecosystem is the first of its kind in the country and it will be an integrated model that will address the shortcomings in the existing skill development programmes and enable a holistic training regime with next-age programme,” said Mr. Suresh Kumar.
The official informed that there are 26 skill colleges (one in each parliamentary constituency and one in Pulivendula) and 192 hubs across 175 Assembly segments in the State now.
Around 55 industries have come forward for a tie-up with the APSSDC to serve as ‘skill spokes’ on their own premises and train the youth to suit their requirements.
Towards achieving this goal, the State government has initiated steps to enhance the quality of (training) infrastructure and also human resources in the skill centres. A skill gap analysis is being done to tune the training programmes by identifying appropriate courses and developing latest curriculum.
Mr. Suresh Kumar said Skill International was the latest initiative of the APSSDC aimed at tapping employment opportunities for skilled youth in foreign countries. “Our first batch of 11 trained nurses got successful placement in Germany and 78 more are now undergoing training under German trainers,” he said.
