The government-run national apprenticeship promotion scheme (NAPS) is seeing a major uptick. In the past 3 years, the total enrolments have grown three-fold to touch 0.9 million in FY24.
Officials in the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) said that a slew of factors have resulted in the sharp jump. “Today, over 3.2 million people have participated in apprenticeship programmes. We have promoted apprenticeship training in more than 110 industry clusters, covering one-third of the districts in the country, and established 22 state apprenticeship monitoring cells. The direct benefit transfer (DBT) of stipends has significantly boosted the NAPS,” Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary at MSDE told FE.
Additionally, the ministry has actively engaged with multiple stakeholders to increase participation, including sending consistent reminders to companies as hiring apprentices is mandatory, he said.
Currently, the scheme mandates all establishments having work force (regular and contract employees) of 30 or more to hire apprentices in a range of 2.5-15% of their workforce every year. For instance, an establishment with total strength of 100 have to engage a minimum of 3 apprentices and a maximum of 15. As per the scheme, there are 7 slabs under which the apprentices are paid by their employers. It ranges from Rs 5,000-9,000 per month based on their qualifications. The government reimburses 25% of the stipend — up to a maximum of Rs 1500 per month per apprentice — that all employers undertake by engaging apprentices.
Even though the companies, particularly in the private sector, are engaging apprentices in large numbers but the stipends are paid to candidates with National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF)-aligned courses. “Just about 30% of the apprentices draw stipend support by those which opt for government support. In the next phase of NAPS, we expect this number of go up significantly,” said Tiwari.
In the recent years, MSDE has brought in comprehensive changes to the Apprentices Act 1961 and Apprenticeship Rules (1992). For instance, in 2019, it had notified changes in Apprenticeship Rules (1992) to raise the monetary compensation of apprentices.
Not just the higher overall enrolments, there has been a notable increase in the participation of women apprentices. For instance, the percentage of women apprentices has grown from 18% in FY21 to 21% in FY24, highlighting a positive trend towards gender inclusivity under the scheme. Launched in 2016, the NAPS has about 0.26 million establishments registered under it, and the government has disbursed claims of Rs 330 crore thus far.
