VIJAYAWADA: The State government is planning to set up career counselling centres in all the 13 districts, in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and AP State Skill Development Corporation. These centres are aimed at increasing job opportunities for students studying in colleges in the State.The CII is currently helping the higher education department in designing topics for various streams. Apart from this, they have also come forward to set up model career centres in five districts on a pilot basis. In the first phase, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur will have the first centre in the next two months, followed by Vijayawada, Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati.
In these model career centres, degree students from all streams, including those from engineering courses, will be given training by industry experts of the district concerned. For example, in Anantapur, students will be given training by experts from automobile industry and the interested candidates can enrol for the programme.Speaking to TNIE, B Jyothsna, CII coordinator, said, “These centres are being developed with an objective to provide the best training to the candidates. Our people are doing a lot of research for this and the course programme will soon take a shape. Also we are starting a placement cell in these centres where students after completing their training will be helped find suitable jobs in companies and the candidates who are looking for jobs can also approach the centres.”
Officials of the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) have instructed universities and colleges to provide some space for the proposed career counselling centres. The department is planning to set up as many as 53 centres across the State.
“The model career centres will surely bring some change as the training will be provided by local industry experts and any candidate from any stream can attend these programmes. Currently, we are in the process of developing curriculum and identifying the core areas to be taught. Soon this will be launched in the State,” says S Varadarajan, Secretary, Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education.