Advisors to the Prime Minister on national skill development have been pressing the government to amend the Apprentice Act of 1961 that seeks to provide on-the-job training to technically qualified people in various trades. The industry calls the Act an outdated piece of legislature that is becoming even more ?draconian?.
While in the original Act an employer is under no obligation to employ the apprentice after completion of apprenticeship, the ministry of labour has now proposed that companies should absorb at least 50% of those trained. The Act has so far failed to make companies volunteer for taking in apprentices because of various issues ranging from penal provisions to prohibitive cost of training. Experts said that the government also has the power to allocate apprentices, which leads to favouritism and corruption.
S Ramadorai, vice-chairman of India?s largest IT services exporter TCS and advisor to the Prime Minister in the National Skill Development Council told FE that he has advised the government to take a re-look at the Apprentice Act. ?There should be no mandate to say that you have to hire every single person that comes to you as an apprentice. Today, it stipulates that 50% of apprentices must be automatically absorbed. We are saying that it should be on need. Providing training should not automatically mean a job,? Ramadorai said.
Manish Sabharwal, chairman of HR services firm TeamLease and member of the advisory council has been pushing for reforms since 2009. As part of a Panning Commission subcommittee on remodelling India?s apprenticeship regime, he had recommended 16 changes ranging from administrative, regulatory, viability and marketing issues.
?India has two-and-half lakh apprentices while a country like Germany has 6 million. We need to scale up Indian apprentices to 10 million. For that to happen, employers have to volunteer rather than being pushed by the government. We need to harness apprentices as a vehicle for ?learning by doing? and ?learning while earning?,? he said.
Among other things, Sabharwal has been asking the government to simplify the workflow for engagement of apprentices by the employer and review of the penal provision of imprisonment ? stiff penal provisions for minor violations keep employers away from the programme.
TV Mohandas Pai, director of Manipal Universal Learning and well-known human resources expert said that the Apprentice Act is the biggest stumbling block for making sure that young people get on-the-job training in India. ?It is a draconian piece of legislation that gives immense power to government officials in the lower levels to send people of their choice without giving the necessary freedom that?s required for an enterprise. Amending the Act to give more freedom to the enterprise to take in people on apprentice, pay them well while giving them on-the-job training without a liability to hire them is a very important aspect of creating skills development,? he noted. ?
Pai said that on-the-job training is the best for skill development and the apprentice programme is most important for that. ?It will also remove the casualisation of labour that is happening right now ? the industry is today hiring casual labour contractors. In addition, the 50% absorption mandate is wrong as it gives power to the government to harass industry. Having a mandate like this is totally absurd.?Leave the field open and let companies decide how much apprentice they want,? he added.