Skill Development Centers at Polytechnics

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The Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to the cause of education and has been playing a proactive role in providing high quality learning experience and opportunities to students. In tune with the Government’s Student centered initiatives, the Department of Technical Education endeavors to provide its students comprehensive, equitable and effective training in job oriented skills in addition to academic qualifications. Severe skill crunch is repeatedly affecting the chances of students in the global job arena.

It is a well known fact that majority of the Polytechnic students come from rural, marginalized and weaker sections matriculated in vernacular language. It is felt that these students must be given ample opportunities to address their weaknesses and prepare students for the near future fully equipped with skills viz., living skills, communications skills, technical skills, creative skills, critical thinking and all other skills that the situation demands.

The Department of Technical Education in its endeavors to ensure quality in Technical Education is implementing:

Ø MHRD scheme of Community Development Through Polytechnics

Ø AICTE scheme of Entrepreneurship  Development Cells

Ø The compulsory industrial training part for polytechnic students in 3^rd /4^th  semesters.

Ø Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme phase -II (TEQIP-II) with financial support for selected Engineering colleges for quality improvement

Scheme of Skill Development Centres for improving the employability of engineering graduates and diploma holders.

Skill Development Center

The Technical Education in Andhra Pradesh has experienced a sea change in the last decade with enormous access to degree level Programmes in Engineering while it was totally contrary in case of Polytechnic Education. The disproportionate access lead to Ratio of Diploma to Degree level seats roughly 1:4 while it should be 3:1 or even higher. Unlike Engineering Colleges, only about 15 to 20% of Polytechnics are existing in Private Sector. XI Plan envisaged establishment of one Polytechnic in each of the 200 Districts not having one at present and also the Ministry has proposed at least 1000 Polytechnics in XI Plan i.e., 300 in Govt. Sector, 300 in PPP and 400 in Private Sector

         While this has been the policy of the Government regarding access to Technical Education the measures as far as quality, in terms of employability of these grads and diploma holders, was not thought of in right proportion. As a result quality has become a casualty and the user industry and other agencies started criticizing the academia for this lacuna.    

                         A recent study of World Bank* that surveyed employers in 20 sectors including IT, Power, Infrastructure etc. revealed that the fresh Engineering Graduates hired by them greatly lacked skill sets that are essential for carrying out the job requirements. This is in spite of the fact that their academic record as declared by the degree awarding Universities is ‘very good’. In addition these recruited graduates were found to be deficient in innovative skills, Problem solving Approach and often even lack the necessary Soft Skills and ability to work in Groups.  Besides, many have been observed to be lacking in interest to learn new concepts and worse still, some are not even willing to be trained to meet Company’s expectations. While identifying that each sector has different skill set requirements, the World Bank paper suggests major initiatives in Higher Education in terms of curricular and assessment changes and improve analytical skills.

Statistics** indicate that India is going to have about 70% of population in working age (15-59) group by 2025, hence we need to exploit this advantage by creating skilled youth and become a super productive country.

We need to prepare our students for the near future by fully equipping them with living skills, communications skills, technical skills, creative skills, critical thinking and all other skills that the situation demands. In this endeavor, the Department of Technical Education of Andhra Pradesh is exploring all the possible ways and means to address the gap between the Industrial requirement and weaknesses in academia.