Tirupati: Government honing skills among youth as per NSQF standards

Tirupati: The government has taken up a multi-pronged strategy to bridge the skill-gap between existing skills with youth and industry requirements so as to see the local youths are employed in the industries coming up in the state, said AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) Managing Director N Bangaru Raju.

Speaking at the 'Manufacturing Sector- Industry Consultation Workshop' organised by APSSDC here on Thursday, he said as part of the strategy, the government was providing needy vocational and behavioural skills during 2nd year onwards for Diploma, ITIs and 3rd year onwards for B Tech and degree students to ensure they possess the skills required for the industries. All the training programmes which comply with the highest industry employability standards duly following National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) standards, he said.

APSSDC Chairman Konduru Ajay Reddy said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was keen on ensuring all possible ways to skill the youth and to mould them 'industry ready'. Welcoming the industry to involve in the much needed youth skilling and employment by establishing synergistic partnership with AP government, he said as many as 26 skill colleges one each for the 26 Parliament constituencies and a skill university (at Yerpedu, Chittoor district) are being set up to give impetus to skilling the youth according to the industry requirements. This network of skill colleges and university would closely work with industry for training and employment for industry-driven skill development among the youth.

Joint Collector N Rajasekhar said the District Skill Committees (DSCs) will function as a single point of contact for all skills and requirements of companies and added that the district has highest potential in agro-based industries like mango, tamarind and diary

based units. District Industries Centre general manager E Pratap giving a brief account on the district industrial scenario said Chittoor has the highest number of 150 large and mega industries with employment of over 80,000 and over 9,000 MSMEs with nearly one lakh employment. He also informed that 60 large and Mega industrial units were coming up in the district with employment of over 40,000. The 'Samagra Parisrama Survey' was identifying the skills and manpower requirements and taking necessary measures in fulfilling them in association with APSSDC, he said.

APIIC Zonal Manager S Sony urged the units to utilise the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) scheme of Government of India under which the industry will be incentivised for a maximum period of

24 months. There are over 2,500 optional trades available under the scheme, she added.

Representatives of manufacturing industries from Sri City and units from Electronic Manufacturing Cluster near Tirupati, district officials participated in the workshop. APSSDC Executive Director D V Ramakoti Reddy, general manager Gopinath and others were present.