Jawahar Knowledge Center is an initiative by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to train the students pursuing varius courses on employable skills to meet the industry requirements and there by bridging the gap between Industry and Academia in the direction of producing Industry ready graduates. This was launched December 2004 by the  Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. This programme is being implemented bythe Institute for Electronic Governance (IEG), Information Technology & Communications Department, Governmnt of Andhra Pradesh. Jawahar Knowledge Centers (JKC) were established in Engineering as well as Degree Colleges.

Need to strengthen JKC’s in Degree Colleges

        National Association of Software & Services Companies – NASSCOM India has estimated that there is huge demand for jobs to an extent of 23 lakhs in coming few years in IT and ITES sectors. It is also projected that there will be a shortage of man power to the extent of 5.00 lakh and above by the year 2010.Similar is the case with Manufacturing, Retail, Banking, Insurance and other sectors. Only 25% of Engineering and about 15% of other degree holder’s posses the skills need by the industry for employment. A large chunk of student community lack skills in areas like English & Communication, Soft skills, Problem Solving, Project Management including technical and domain skills..The responsibility of imparting training to the students in these areas, with out detrimental to their regular studies is the main objective of the JKCs. So far over 100 JKCs in Engineering Colleges and about 29 JKCs in Government Degree Colleges (under Commissioner of Collegiate Education) have been set up and are functioning. But these number are very less when compared with the number of colleges in the state. There are about 224 Engineering Colleges and 1700 Degree colleges in the state, sending out 50,000 engineering graduates and 1,50,000 Graduates every year. Hence instead of restricting JKCs to a limited number of colleges, it has been decided to scale them up drastically, keeping in view of the number of students coming out from the colleges and demand for huge manpower.