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Changing IT trends in Andhra Pradesh
Malti Chandra Shekhar
Jawahar Knowledge Centre has helped over 200 engineering colleges in the tier II and III towns of the state increase their employment rate of graduates from 8% to 28%
As a proportion of national GDP, the IT sector revenues have grown from 1.2% in 1998 to an estimated 5.8% in 2009 and it is here in India’s IT industry where the state of Andhra Pradesh plays a major role. Its share of IT exports in the country has grown from 7.5 % in 200304 to 15 % in 2008-09. The state capital Hyderabad is ranked the number one Indian ITES destination by NASSCOM. However, the tremendous growth in this knowledge-based business within a short period of time has created the problem of skill-set shortage.
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Getting it Right The state of Andhra Pradesh produces half a million graduates from its colleges and universities every year. However, due to poor awareness of industry grade skills only 10% of general graduates and 25% engineering graduates can be employed in various sectors of industry and amongst them, those who benefited the most are from urban background or students of the premium institutions. As majority of the engineering colleges in private sector are established in Tier II and Tier III towns and rural areas to meet the educational
needs of these populations, the students were facing disadvantage of location, lack of soft skills and communication skills required by the industry. Furthermore, ease of accessibility and affordability of higher education in the state encouraged the socially and economically disadvantaged students to pursue technical education who required additional training and career guidance for competing in the global market. Added to this, in the globalised market, the skills required by a student in engineering college went beyond the