APITA to ink pact with ISB

Visakhapatnam: ANDHRA Pradesh IT Academy (APITA), an autonomous body established by the State Government under the Department of IT, Electronics and Communications, has come out in a big way for skill development among students including those studying B Tech, MCA and MBA to improve their employment quotient.

It is laying emphasis on training in core areas and disruptive technologies and providing the students placement assistance. It is conducting e-governance training in association with National Informatics Centre (NIC).

APITA is all set to sign an MoU with ISB on October 8 to conduct certificate courses in business literacy, digital literacy and cognitive skills. It will be offered on a revenue sharing model with a contribution of Rs 300 from APITA and Rs 200 from college where the students are enrolled. The course with a duration of 40-hour classrooms is open to all. Employment Express, a HR consultant and placement firm will provide placement assistance on completion of the course.

APITA CEO T. Anil Kumar, who is also OSD to Minister for IT, Industries and Commerce Mekapati Goutham Reddy, told Bizz Buzz on Monday in an exclusive interview that they are conducting 240-hour training spanning over six months to 11,000 students in artificial intelligence and machine learning. The course worth Rs 5,000 in market value is offered by collecting just Rs 1200 towards student contribution. APITA is giving Rs 500 and another cross subsidy of Rs 500 is also offered.

Naandi Foundation, CSR arm of Mahindra Group has entered into an agreement with APITA to conduct courses in Python, digital marketing and soft skills with placement support to 15,000 students. The duration of the course is 40 to 60 hours. It is open to all with focus on providing jobs. As part of the CSR initiative, Naandi Foundation will not charge anything from the students.

In another welcome development, APITA is also in the process of inking pacts with Tap Academy, a startup and IBM to introduce its certified courses in various areas. A concessional fee of Rs 5,000 will be charged from the students. For degree students, the fee is fixed at Rs 3,000. Out of the total 120 courses, 60 will be for degree students.

Anil Kumar disclosed that AP State Council of Higher Education has agreed to recognise all the courses being conducted by APITA in collaboration with reputed institutes, which have a duration of at least 40-hour curriculum.

UGC has also agreed to permit these courses as elective in recognition of the trend-setting initiative of Andhra Pradesh Government. APITA in collaboration with a noted startup formed by the products of IITs and IIMs will be conducting a hackathon on new age technologies to encourage young talent. Incubation cenres at SRM University and KLM University are also being promoted as centres for ideation and validation of ideas.

Placement record

Anil Kumar said AP is the leading State in providing placement through campus pool. He said they roped in a major player like Infosys which has so far recruited 4,360.

He said APITA has been chosen for getting the EdTech award, IT strategy award and himself as best CEO in recognition of a slew of initiatives launched to improve the skill-set of students thereby improving their employment quotient. Till date, 55,000 students have undergone various courses. As many as 185 engineering colleges and 200 MBA/MCA colleges from across the State have registered themselves to avail of the benefit of various courses through APITA for their students.