Amaravati/Vizag : As per the India Skills Report 2019, a joint initiative of Wheebox, a Global Talent Assessment Company, PeopleStrong, a leading HR Tech Company and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and supported and backed by renowned partners like United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Andhra Pradesh has topped the list of states with the highest employability in India. The employability level of B.Tech/B.E is 63.11% as against last year which was 42.08%; The employability level of MBA & Polytechnic stands low at 47.18% & 45.90% but has shown small improvement against last year ( MBA 44.90%; Polytechnic 33.85%).

In the words of Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh, “It is our vision to make AP as the Knowledge and Skills hub of the country by facilitating the development of a robust Skilling ecosystem with International Standards. We are on a Mission mode to enhance the employability skills of our students and unemployed youth to meet the skilled manpower demand from Industry, spurred by sustained  double-digit growth rates in AP.

“I invite Skilling and Vocational training agencies of repute to set up their high end training centres in AP and be a part of our exciting growth story.

“I also invite the Recruiters to visit AP to meet their staff hiring needs as they can reap the benefit of ready availability of highly skilled manpower here. The AP Govt. will provide required assistance and facilitation to the Companies and HR teams in this regard”

According to K.Sambasiva Rao IRTS, MD&CEO, AP State Skill Development Corporation, “APSSDC’s initiatives in providing market driven training programs are leading to creation of a readily available talent pool to effectively meet the skilled manpower needs of various sectors.  Our focus is on structuring and delivering high quality, industry-relevant training courses to the students and  unemployed youth to enhance their employability quotient. He further added that “Going forward, we plan to further expand our activities in active collaboration with academia, industry and training agencies to shape AP as the Skills Capital of the country duly  facilitating a top class Skilling infrastructure.”

India skills report also stated that Andhra Pradesh is on of the preferred hiring destination and one of the most preferred state of work by both Male and female workforces.  The students from ITIs, Polytechnic and Engineering colleges, identified and ranked top skills which arework ethics, verbal communication, analytical & critical thinking, problem solving, interpersonal skills, written communication skills.

As per the India Skills Report 2019, nearly 70% of the youth perceive the lack of professional guidance in identifying jobs that match their skills to be the main obstacle in searching for a desirable job.

In the words of Nirmal Singh, Founder & CEO – Wheebox said, “The increase in employability in Andhra Pradesh is good sign for the market.  But we have a long way to go and entire ecosystem should focus on bridging the employability gaps, enhancing the talent pool thus taking measures from school level to professional level focusing on learning.”

He further added that Educational Institutes should focus in identifying the skill gaps amongst the students and Students should explore options of developing their skills which would give them the direction towards their career. According to the survey, Millennial consider a university degree or post-graduate degree as a requirement for their ideal job.

Every Industry from FMCG, Startups, consultingetc. hire internships which are paid or unpaid. According to the report, a small percentage of students in all stateshave done at least one internship in the past twelve months, apart from many steering efforts by State skilling and education bodies increase in this one factor of creating an internships ecosystem in States will build more employable resource and that is the need of the hour. Another interesting insight from the Wheebox report is that close to 80% of candidates assessed are keen to explore internship opportunities and they believe that internship will help them in being employable, whereas 85% of the candidates feel that they are not fully equipped with information or guidance to take a conscious, thought-out career decision.

The sixth edition of India Skills Report captures insights and trends from the largest employability test that was spread out to 5200 Universities and Professional Institutions in India. The test reached out to more than 3 lakh students across 29 states and 7 Union Territories on the talent supply side, along with India hiring intent – a primary research survey on the talent demand side that reached out to over 100+ large employers across 9 major industry verticals for talent demand.