The Government of Andhra Pradesh plans to create synergy for a strong skills ecosystem suited to emerging industrial needs and market demands. To get the ball rolling, a meeting of industry-university-skills sector councils is scheduled to take place in Vijayawada on May 5 (Wednesday).

The meeting will focus on building a skills ecosystem through skills hubs, skills colleges and a proposed state-of-the-art skills university. Let us recall here that the government has proposed setting up centers of expertise in the 175 constituencies of the Assembly, a college of skills in each parliamentary constituency, in addition to a university of advanced skills.

CEOs of skills councils, industry partners and universities from ITIs, polytechnics, university colleges and universities will deliberate on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) “in-demand” level courses that have been identified in convergence with the departments concerned, to arrive at equivalence and to allow the transfer and accumulation of credits. Some courses would be offered to students who have left formal education and to those continuing their regular university studies.

“The idea is to get comprehensive recommendations and a roadmap to create a robust skills ecosystem in the state to maximize benefits for formal and non-formal students by providing gainful employment, including entrepreneurship “said a source from academia.

Basic assessment

The final outcome of the meeting will cover the basic assessment of candidates for the Institute and Competency Development courses, curriculum design and content development, training methodology and training of trainers and the trainer evaluation and certification.

Dignitaries who will attend the workshop include Senior Economic Advisor, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Union VLVSS Subba Rao, Co-Secretary of Indian Council of Technical Education (AICTE) Budha Chandra Sekhar and Prof. D Somayajulu from IIIT, Kurnool.

Other industry representatives attending the event include Arpit Sharma and Vamsi Krishna C. from Green Jobs, Sunil K. Marwah from Food Processing Sector, Ravikanth Yamarthy and Prof. S. Ganesan from Logistics, Sunita Badhwar of Tourism and Hospitality. , Arpanesh Mani from media and entertainment, Col. Anil Pokhriyal from management, Saroj Kumar Apato and Lalu Dharavath from electronics, Iswar Pujara from agriculture, Swapna Mishra from textiles and Kavitha from garment industry.