HYDERABAD: The Telangana government’s commitment on skilling youth according to industry needs will be taken to the next level in 2018. Plans are afoot to extend the range of the initiative called TASK (Telangana Academy for Skills and Knowledge) to go beyond IT and ITES and include more areas like banking financial services, life sciences, aerospace and healthcare.
Sujiv Nair, Chief Executive Officer of TASK says, “Last year we realised that there is lot of opportunity beyond IT. So in 2018, we will create awareness among parents and students that there are many jobs beyond IT and ITES, and that skilling is very important. People mostly look at the usual career options like software engineering, the police department or teaching jobs. We want people to look beyond these skills because there are immense opportunities outside of these areas.”
Telangana, when compared to other states, is at an advantage in terms of the variety of industries wanting to set up shops here because of low land prices, the aptitude of youths here. Minister K. T. Rama Rao has been very inviting to industries and has promoted TASK extensively to companies.
Mr Nair says, “State Street, a Fortune 100 company, wanted to set up shop in Telangana and asked us to mobilise students that match certain criteria. We trained some students, of which the company picked up 80-plus for jobs. TASK supplements what is happening in colleges by giving training and skill certificates. Youths with an academic degree and a skill certificate have a higher chance of getting employment.”
The Niti Aayog listed four of TASK’s programmes in its skilling and employability best practices in 2017.
Companies also heavily subsidise the training as part of their corporate service responsibility (CSR). Some courses which otherwise cost about '52,550, cost as low as '5,250 if one goes through TASK.
SAP ABAP and Basis Program which cost '3.5-4 lakh in any good organisation can be done through TASK for about '12,000, plus 50 per cent lower cost on certification.
