The Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) is offering training to engineering students in various courses, to improve their skills. In an interview with Express, APSSDC Director T Lakshmi shed light on the training modules and the objectives behind the initiative.
What is the main intention behind conducting these training classes in engineering colleges and how are they scheduled?
The main intention is to improve the employability skills of students. In order to achieve this, the students are being trained in various aspects, based on their academics. The programme was initially launched only for engineering students in 2015, but soon expanded to a degree, polytechnic and school students in rural areas.
How has the journey been up until now?
It all started with an app development programme in 2015, which received good response from students. As many as 650 pupils from across 13 districts of the State took part in the two-week training session then. Later, in the app contest, 26 students were selected and got recruited by Logic Sure. Taking this as an inspiration, we designed other programmes to develop the skills among engineering students. We initially trained the final year students. Later, to bring a systematic change, we started including students from first year to final year and faculty.
What made you to concentrate on final year students?
The final year students would generally focus on campus placements and neglect the project works, fearing to write codes. So, they approach private agencies and buy the projects. Against this backdrop, we designed a training module in which the students must write the coding and submit the assignments on time. This helps them become efficient and land plum job.
How many students have been trained so far and recruited?
As many as 1,365 final year students were trained in 2014-15 and 3,906 students in 2015-16. Of them, 2,158 students landed jobs in various companies i.e., 40 per cent.
What are the new programmes scheduled for 2016-17?
From this academic year, the APSSDC is training students, from first to final year, in Category Improvement Programme, Skill Improvement Programme, Project Improvement Programme and Digital Literacy Programme. Thousands of students from across the State enrolled for these programmes.
Now, we are also offering training to faculty in order to create a structured working atmosphere where the students, faculty and skill trainers are interconnected. We got a team of master trainers from various industries and companies to train the students and also a group of mentors to motivate them.
What is the fee structure and are there any free courses?
All the training modules and project works are paid services and the students have to pay additionally to get into these programmes. The course fee is quite nominal when compared to any other private institutes. As we have to spend huge amount on master trainers and training modules, we decided not to go for free programmes, but eventually to encourage SC/ST students, we are offering training free of cost for them.