Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 8: Advancing Prime Minister Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India’ & ‘Skilling India’, a workshop was organized by Confederation of Indian Industry here today as a part of national awareness campaign on implementation of (amended) apprenticeship guidelines training amongst all stakeholders, particularly Industry.
Chander Parkash Gupta, Chairman J&K State Council and Chairman & Managing Director, J&K Heritage Resorts Pvt Ltd, highlighted that apprenticeship will play a crucial role in the task of up-skilling India’s workforce and increasing employability. He added 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 unutilized. Apprenticeship Act will be suitably amended to make it more responsive to industry and youth.
Mr Gupta further pointed out that apprenticeship programs are an effective way for adults to transit from school to work life while improving links between Industry and training institutions. Apprenticeships are successful because they facilitate ‘learning by earning’ and ‘learning by doing’ combining formal education with hands-on-experience.
Jayant Krishna, Principal Consultant & Regional Head- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Lead-Task Force on Apprenticeship Reforms, CII & Chairperson, Special Task Force on Apprenticeship Rationalization MSDE, highlighted the need for apprenticeship in India. He pointed out that China has 20 million apprentices, Japan has 10 million whereas India has only about 2.8 lakh 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% of that minimum wage in first year, 80% in the second year and going up to 90% in third and fourth year which attracts more number of youth to join apprenticeship.
Dr T C Saravanabava, Deputy Director General (Apprentice Training), Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India 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 mentioned the key features of the amendments, such as , number of apprentices at establishment level instead of trade-wise; engagement of apprentices in optional trades which are not designated; inclusion of non-engineering occupations and outsourcing of basic training to another institute.
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