The Hindu Business Line : AP to add over 1 lakh more to employment pool this year

The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to undertake a massive upscaling of its technical manpower, with the addition of one lakh engineering graduates and over 50,000 polytechnic students from academic year 2008-09.

At present, the State churns out 1.3 lakh engineering graduates from 327 colleges in both the Government and private sector. It produces 23,980 polytechnic students.

From 2008 academic year, it has been decided to hike the engineering student strength by one lakh more. Similarly, the number of seats in polytechnic colleges, both existing and new ones would go up by another 75,000, said Mr K. Praveen Kumar of A.P. Invest.

There is a huge demand for technical manpower. At present, the State has about 142 polytechnics. This number would be raised. Similar would be the case with engineering colleges too, he said.

Tie ups with intl varsities

The State Government was also receiving intents from international universities to set up their offshore campuses. While the Government has given the nod and allocated land to the Georgia Tech University from the US, several universities from Australia, US and Europe were in negotiations, he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE), Mr K.C. Reddy, said proposals for setting up 90 private engineering colleges in the State were currently being examined by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

“Permissions are likely soon and by the end of the academic year, the number of engineering graduates would be 1.75 lakh. The Government was also considering setting up of two new engineering colleges,” he told Business Line.

Efforts were also on to encourage starting of polytechnic colleges in the private sector, Mr Reddy added.

While issues of employability of the large number of engineering and technical graduates were a concern, Mr Reddy said: “The Government would monitor quality education by promoting inter-disciplinary and practical courses”.

The APSCHE was also working with the corporates and industry bodies like Nasscom for upgradation of skills and employability of the graduates, he said.

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