Information Technology sector, academia and skill development institutes will work in tandem to improve the employment potential of engineering graduates and as a part of it, Information Technology Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) is preparing the syllabus for a certificate course and is working on it with Andhra University, MP K. Haribabu has said.

With the focus of skill development on lower levels till now, the number of engineering graduates that remained unemployed has been increasing in spite of thousands of jobs being available, Mr. Haribabu said at a press conference he addressed with representatives of IIAT, universities and skill development institutes here on Saturday.

A meeting would be held on August 3 with ITAAP representatives and Andhra University officials and the former would present the curriculum prepared for a three-month certificate course. The two would sign an MoU for a three-month certificate course. To begin with Andhra University would offer it and later others like the HPCL Skill Development Institute would take it up, Mr. Haribabu said.

ITAAP president R.L. Narayana said owing to lack of employable youth with required skills several big names in the IT sector were recruiting from Gurugram, Pune and Chennai and other places for jobs in Visakhapatnam and there were also instances of hundreds of jobs going elsewhere.

AU College of Arts principal K. Ramamohana Rao said its course on GST proved quite successful. The university had the infrastructure and would play its role in skill development with the State Government sanctioning three skill development centres- one in science and technology and two in arts and commerce.