The government can allow enterprises to engage up to 25% of their total manpower as apprentices but with riders, ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) secretary Debashree Mukherjee said.
“Large industries can be allowed to take up to 25% apprentices provided they have reached the 15% limit in the last three years, will pay at least 30% above the minimum rate that is mandated and should employ at least 35% or more of the apprentices,” Mukherjee said while while speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit on Monday.
“This is to ensure apprentices are not just used as cheap labour,” she added.
The skills ministry runs the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) while the ministry of education runs the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) with an estimated three million apprentices engaged in the system.
Under the current provisions, establishments, with a total workforce of 30 or more, are required to mandatorily engage apprentices in a band of 2.5% to 15% of their total manpower strength including regular employees, contractual staff, and daily wage workers.
However, the challenge is that we've not been able to make a major headway in the MSME sector, she said, urging large industries to leverage their ancillaries and the MSME network to bring in more apprentices into the system.
Mukherjee flagged the issue of low wages, lack of safe housing and need for cultural integration for a large number of workers in the north and eastern part of the country who migrate to western and southern states for jobs, calling for public policy interventions and support from the private sector to address these issues.
Highlighting the ministry’s Rs 60,000 crore Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) scheme to modernise 1000 government industrial training institutes (ITIs), secretary Mukherjee urged industry to partner with the government
“Under the scheme, the government is providing infrastructure and other available resources and wants industry to leverage this infrastructure to actually train candidates as per their needs by designing the courses that are relevant for them, both in the long term as well as short term training,” she said, urging the industry to bid aggressively under the scheme.
PM-SETU aims to transform vocational training through a hub-and-spoke model, featuring industry-led governance (51% industry ownership) to boost youth employability and align skill development with the goals for a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
“Large industries can be allowed to take up to 25% apprentices provided they have reached the 15% limit in the last three years, will pay at least 30% above the minimum rate that is mandated and should employ at least 35% or more of the apprentices,” Mukherjee said while while speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit on Monday.
“This is to ensure apprentices are not just used as cheap labour,” she added.
The skills ministry runs the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) while the ministry of education runs the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) with an estimated three million apprentices engaged in the system.
Under the current provisions, establishments, with a total workforce of 30 or more, are required to mandatorily engage apprentices in a band of 2.5% to 15% of their total manpower strength including regular employees, contractual staff, and daily wage workers.
However, the challenge is that we've not been able to make a major headway in the MSME sector, she said, urging large industries to leverage their ancillaries and the MSME network to bring in more apprentices into the system.
Mukherjee flagged the issue of low wages, lack of safe housing and need for cultural integration for a large number of workers in the north and eastern part of the country who migrate to western and southern states for jobs, calling for public policy interventions and support from the private sector to address these issues.
Highlighting the ministry’s Rs 60,000 crore Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) scheme to modernise 1000 government industrial training institutes (ITIs), secretary Mukherjee urged industry to partner with the government
“Under the scheme, the government is providing infrastructure and other available resources and wants industry to leverage this infrastructure to actually train candidates as per their needs by designing the courses that are relevant for them, both in the long term as well as short term training,” she said, urging the industry to bid aggressively under the scheme.
PM-SETU aims to transform vocational training through a hub-and-spoke model, featuring industry-led governance (51% industry ownership) to boost youth employability and align skill development with the goals for a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
