Apprenticeship in all sectors

Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSKDC) organised a seminar on ‘Implementation of Apprenticeship Scheme in Andhra Pradesh, in the city on Wednesday. Minister for Skill Development, Sports and Youth Affairs Kollu Ravindra several senior officials from the Centre and State were present at the seminar.

Inaugurating the seminar, Minister Ravindra said that there are about two lakh industries in the state, however, majority of the industries are not implementing the apprenticeship system. In order to provide employment to youth, the Central government has brought several reforms in the scheme. The Central government also allocated Rs 10,000 crore to promote the apprenticeship across the country.

The state government is implementing the unemployment allowance very soon. Already, the government identified 10 lakh unemployed youth aged between 22 and 35 years. All the 10 lakh youth would be given apprenticeship at various industries and companies, the minister said.

Managing Director of APSKDC K Sambasiva Rao said that the industry is having several doubts to implement the apprenticeship and the government is now making efforts to clear the doubts and to promote apprenticeship. All these years, the apprenticeship was only given to the ITI, but now the manufacturing companies and the government decided to implement the same in the service and other sectors also, he added.

Joint Secretary of Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in New Delhi Rajesh Agarwal said that Andhra Pradesh is the first state in the country which is implementing the apprenticeship in all the sectors. 

Though the Central government allocated Rs 10,000 crore for better implementation of the scheme, Rs 200 crore only invested so far, Rajesh lamented. The government also launched a portal; the industries and aspirants can register their names in the portal, he added. About 83 per cent of graduates are not getting jobs in the country and by implementing the apprenticeship to the youth, the government is trying to provide employment to them, he added.

Special Chief Secretary of Skill Development Entrepreneurship and Innovations of AP JSV Prasad, Special Chief Secretary LV Subrahmanyam, President of AP Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sambasiva Rao also spoke. After the lunch sessions, the officials cleared several doubts of the industry. The officials interacted with the CEOs, MDs and other operational heads of various companies.