Telangana Academy for Skills and Knowledge for Engineering

TASK to improve employability

Concerned with overcoming the challenge of increasing employability levels by improving the required skill sets in engineering graduates, Government of Telangana is chalking out an action plan by setting up TASK (Telangana Academy for Skills and Knowledge), said Secretary-Information Technology, Harpreet Singh.

Of the approximately 60,000 graduates who passed out of engineering colleges in Telangana year after year, only about 25,000 got jobs soon after. “What do we do for the others ? Government is seriously thinking of the options available to improve the situation. Problems include those related to faculty in colleges and the curriculum, for which we need to assess the faculty’s proficiency levels and the programme content,” he said.

He was speaking at a Computer Society of India press conference, to announce the golden jubilee and 49 annual convention CSI 2014 to be held here on December 10 and 11. Mr. Harpreet Singh said this would be biggest challenge that needed to be overcome and that it would mean radical changes in the education system which Government was contemplating, also providing the last mile connectivity.

“In Tamil Nadu for example, of about 45,000 graduates who passed out annually, atleast 35,000 of them get jobs immediately after completing the course. We need to think of ways and means to improve the employability of our graduates. The IT space is so dynamic and youth-centric that one needs to constantly adapt to newer technologies and systems,” he said

Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Rameshwar Rao said they were working on proposals to include in the curriculum and recalled Mr. Singh who said they could possibly think of having a capsule in the course that would teach students English, with particular reference to communication skills.

Executive Chairman of Talent Sprint and the Conference Chair, J.A. Choudary, outlined the schedule of the programme and said it would include a student conference with a ‘Hackathon’, while the main event on ‘ICT-Opportunities in Digital India’ would be inaugurated by Union Minister for Communications & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad in the presence of Telangana Minister for IT, K.T. Rama Rao. Secretary-Defence R & D, Avinash Chander would deliver the keynote address on ‘Digital India-Challenges and Opportunities Ahead’.