State also tops in availability of numerical skills and has the highest number of internship seekers in the country, says the report
Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of internship seekers in the country at 93.50%, followed by Rajasthan (93.22), Jharkhand (92.98), Karnataka (91.62) and West Bengal (91.38), according to the “India Skills Report 2023” released by Wheebox, engaged in online remote proctored assessments, in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) among a few other organisations.
In the available numerical skills, A.P. is on top followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, and the State also has the maximum female workforce in the country, while Tamil Nadu comes second, Karnataka third, Maharashtra fourth and Uttar Pradesh fifth.
Among the top five States where employees prefer salary of ₹2.6 lakh and above Andhra Pradesh comes in the first place, followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh in that order.
As far as available skills in English language is concerned, Andhra Pradesh comes third, after Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, third in female employability, after Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and fourth in the ‘highest employability’ category.
Strategic initiatives
The Government has taken key strategic decisions in the higher education sector in the State for students’ workforce readiness in accordance with the demands of the industry.
The results indicate that the slew of initiatives have started showing a positive trend with the State’s position moving upwards in different verticals.
Citing the report, the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) says Andhra Pradesh has managed to wrest the top position in many verticals because of its relentless efforts to scale up the educational standards by ushering in reforms.
Redesigned curriculum
“We redesigned the curriculum of the conventional degree programmes and professional degree programmes by incorporation of a 30% skill component, besides introducing market-oriented degree and vocational programmes,” said APSCHE Chairman K. Hemachandra Reddy.
Referring to the introduction of mandatory 10-month internship, he said it was aimed at providing hands-on exposure to students and familiarising them with work culture.
APSCHE has signed MoUs to offer virtual internships to nearly 2.95 lakh students in collaboration with NASSCOM Future Skills, Salesforce, BSNL, Microsoft, EduSkills and Employment Express among other organisations.
“As many as 1,95,245 students have completed two-month-long internships in physical and virtual modes and 1,08,102 students have completed their community service project,” informed Prof. Reddy.
He said to help the first generation of English learners, bilingual textbooks were published to enable students make a smooth transition from Telugu to English medium.
