Metro India News | amaravati

Building on the success of a pilot project in Mangalagiri, the Andhra Pradesh government is gearing up to launch a State-wide skill census, the first of its kind in India, in January 2025. This initiative aims to provide a detailed analysis of the State’s workforce, classify and organise the skills possessed by people by identifying skill gaps and enabling targeted interventions to address them.

A team of officials and staff from the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) go door to door for the household survey as part of the Andhra Pradesh government’s ambitious plan to enumerate skill census, the first of its kind in India. They are assisted by “Grama Sachivalayams” (village secretariats) which provides public services at the grassroots level.

APSSDC has almost completed the pilot census conducted in five mandals of Tadepalli, Duggirala, Mangalagiri Urban, Mangalagiri Rural and Thulluru in Mangalagiri Assembly Constituency.

A total of 775 enumerators, drawn from APSSDC, village and ward secretariats, Society for Employment Generation and Enterprise Development in Andhra Pradesh (SEEDAP), and the National Academy of Construction (NAC), surveyed 1,12,251 households categorised into 2,029 clusters across 100 Sachivalayams by reaching out to the 2,77,207 residents.

Skill gap study

This sample assessment and data collection exercise aims to understand the skills and competencies of the local population and the skills in demand for improving the State economy. In other words, it is a skill gap study, which will be replicated at the State level, tentatively from the first week of January 2025.

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (2022-23), says that Andhra Pradesh has the highest unemployment rate of 24% among graduates aged 15 years and above in India. The Skill Census exercise aims to address this issue.

The Labour Force Participation Rate is lowest among those with higher secondary education, while unemployment rate in the 15-29 years age group is 15.7% against the national average of 10%, indicating that Andhra Pradesh needs to skill up its youth more to bring down the unemployment rate.

Regarding the gender-based worker population ratio among the 15-29 years age group it has been found that fewer young women are participating in the workforce, and more programmes could be designed to uplift them. Regarding wages among salaried employees (15 to 29 years age group) are concerned, the state is performing above the national average, but there is scope for improvement.

Unlocking talent People, especially the youth, see the skill census as a boon in disguise.

“Through this very special project, the government is trying to identify what skills people have across different jobs and fields, spot the gap between the skills people have and what employers need,” says Ganesh Kumar, Director and CEO, APSSDC explaining that the outcome of the census will benefit both, the government and the people. He says it will equip the government with useful data to create better training and job-oriented programmes and help people choose careers, find suitable training, and improve their job chances.

As per K. Raghu, the Executive Director of APSSDC, the outcome of the census will be a powerful tool that will help the government systematically classify and organise the skills possessed by people

Mammoth task

Gearing up for the State-wide survey, which would require meticulous planning and execution to ensure accuracy and reliability, officials at the helm of the project are making swift and elaborate arrangements, including multiple rounds of workshops and training sessions on a massive scale at the village, mandal, district, and State levels.

The census will cover 3.5 crore working-age people (15-59 years) in 1.8 crore households in Andhra Pradesh. The project involves two key elements: a household census and an industry census. The State has 33 lakh micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), among other major industries, and all of them will be covered.

Skill ID

To overcome the language barrier, the enumerators will conduct the survey in a bilingual format. After the enumeration, the participants will receive a Skill ID derived from their Aadhaar number, which will give them access to a skill profile, assessments and lifelong skilling opportunities in virtual and physical modes. Around 50,000 enumerators and 8,000 supervisors would be trained to carry out the project.