Arrangements for construction of 30 Skill Development Colleges (SDCs) are in full swing, which is set to play a key role in providing quality human resources and industrial development in the State. With the identification and selection of sites already completed at 21 locations in 25 parliamentary constituencies, the Andhra Pradesh State Skills Development Corporation (APSSDC) is making arrangements to call for tenders soon.
Each SDC will be set up on at least 5 acres of land at a cost of Rs. 40 crore. It is estimated that Rs 1,200 crore would be required for the construction of 30 colleges initially. Tenders will be called for and construction work will start as soon as the administrative clearances are received from the Centre.
In addition to these, efforts are on for setting up a Skill Development University for the State. The Skill Development University will be set up on 50 acres of land at Kobaka village in Yerpedu mandal near Tirupati.
The APSSDC aims to lay the foundation stone for the SDCs by the Chief Minister YS Jagan on July 8, to mark the birth anniversary of the late leader and former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
The syllabus was also ready and training would be provided at SDCs in two categories-finishing skill courses and alternative employment courses. There would be in all 162 courses -127 finishing skills and 35 alternative employment courses. These include 49 technical, 41 non-technical and 20 sectoral skill courses. These courses are designed to identify the needs of industries in the state and the skill requirements they require. Labs will also be set up for these courses. Already 18 leading companies have come forward to participate in this skill training and have entered into an agreement with APSSDC.
APSSDC in February this year was recognised by the Guinness International Book of Records for conducting online skill-training programmes for the benefit of the students and unemployed youth during the Covid pandemic. The APSSDC created a comprehensive programme to train students and unemployed youth with experts on courses that were in demand in the market through an online platform. More than two lakh people, including students, unemployed youths, tribal youth and women, and prospective entrepreneurs were benefited from this training during the pandemic.