AP tops in employability level among states

Andhra Pradesh has emerged on top in terms of employability among the states with the engineering graduates having the highest level of employability, according to India Skills Report-2019.

Employability level of B.Tech and B.E graduates from the state shot up significantly to 63.11 per cent this year from 42.08 per cent last year, a release here said Thursday.

MBA and polytechnic graduates' employability increased to 47.18 per cent and 45.90 per cent respectively against 44.90 per cent and 35.85 per cent respectively the previous year.

The report is a joint initiative of Wheebox, a global talent assessment company, PeopleStrong, a leading HR Tech company and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Andhra Pradesh was one of the preferred hiring destinations and one of the most preferred states of work by both men and women job-seekers, said the report, supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Association of Indian Universities.

The India Skills Report-2019, which is the sixth edition, captured insights and trends from the largest employability test that was spread out to 3200 universities and professional institutions in the country, the release said.

Commenting on the report, the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) CEO and MD K Sambasiva Rao said the the corporation's initiatives in providing market-driven training programmes were leading to creation of a readily available talent pool.

"This is helping in effectively meeting the skilled manpower needs of various sectors. Our focus is on structuring and delivering high-quality, industry-relevant training courses to students and unemployed youth to enhance their employability quotient, he said in the statement.

The APSSDC had drawn up plans to further expand its activities in collaboration with academia, industry and training agencies to create top-class skilling infrastructure and make the state as the skills capital of the country, Rao added.

According to the report, a small percentage of students in all states have done at least one internship in the past 12 months.

Another insight from the report was that close to 80 per cent of candidates assessed were keen to explore internship opportunities as they believed it would help them in being more employable.