The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised a workshop on ‘Amended Apprenticeship Guidelines for Industry’ as a part of national awareness campaign on implementation of (amended) apprenticeship guidelines training amongst all stakeholders, particularly industry.
Tarun Daga, chairman, CII Jharkhand highlighted that comparing the size and rate of growth of economy of India, the performance of Apprenticeship Training Scheme (ATS) is not satisfactory and a large number of training facilities available in the industry are going unutilised. Apprenticeship Act will be suitably amended to make it more responsive to industry and youth.
Daga further pointed out that apprenticeship can play a crucial role in the task of up-skilling India's workforce and increasing employability.
TC Saravanabava, deputy director general (Apprentice Training), Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, GOI emphasised that The Apprenticeship Act of 1961 has been amended to address the immediate concerns within the skill eco-system, making it more responsive to the Industry and the youth.
He further pointed out that a new Scheme ‘Apprentice Protsahan Yojana’ has been started on 16 October 2014 to.
Objectives of this scheme are to, bring more number of establishments and youth under the Apprentices Act, 1961 and to encourage Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises and other establishments to avail the benefits of apprenticeship training scheme.
Jayant Krishna, Principal consultant & regional head- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), lead- Task Force on Apprenticeship Reforms, CII & Chairperson, Special Taskforce on Apprenticeship Rationalization MSDE , highlighted the need for apprenticeship in Idia.
He pointed out that China has 10 million apprentices, Japan has 10 million whereas India has only about 2.8 lac people who have undergone apprenticeship training.
He further mentioned that in an ideal scenario 2.5 % of the entire manpower of a country should undergo apprenticeship training .
He added that the compensation standards needs to improve, minimum rate of stipend per month payable to the trade apprentices has been indexed to minimum wage of semi-skilled worker, starting at 70 per cent of that minimum wage in first year, 80 per cent in the second year and going up to 90% in third and fourth year which attracts more number of youth to join apprenticeship. Jayant Krishna further pointed out that CII has been actively involved in this initiative alongwith the Government of India and most of the recommendations from CII has been incorporated and accepted by the Government in this regard.