Skilling push: Norms revised to boost trainee hiring

NEW DELHI: The government has raised the ceiling on the percentage of apprentices in an organisation to 15% from 10% and lowered the number of employees in firms that need to mandatorily hire apprentices to 30 from 40. This will allow smaller companies to hire more trainees and give more youths an opportunity to get into the apprenticeship fold.Though this will add to the cost of firms, the government believes apprenticeship is one of the most sustainable models globally for skill training as it allows the youth to earn while they learn, said officials.The number of apprentices in India continues to be minuscule despite major amendments to the law and the government feels that there is a huge potential for apprenticeship in the country, said an official, who did not wish to be identified.In India, less than 0.1% of the employed workforce or just 0.3 million people are apprentices. In comparison, the UK has 1.5% or 0.5 million, China has 2.5% or 20 million, and Germany has 5% or 2.5 million apprentices.71321200 The sweeping changes to the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992, under the Apprenticeship Act, 1961, were finalised at the Central Apprenticeship Council meeting in July. ET has accessed a copy of the new Apprenticeship Rules, 2019.“The upper limit of engagement of apprentices has been raised from the existing 10% of total strength of an establishment to 15% to give more opportunities to youth (to) get exposure to shop floor training,” skill development and entrepreneurship ministry said in a notification.“In order to facilitate engagement of apprentices by smaller companies, the government has reduced the lower limit for establishments going for mandatory apprenticeship training from 40 to 30 while for optional category the employee strength has been revised down from 6 to 40 earlier to 4 to 29 now,” it said.

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