Apprentice intake sees significant surge amidst COVID-19 pandemic; led by these sectors

The overall intake of apprentices across India Inc has seen a significant surge amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, led by sectors like automotive, retail, logistics, pharma and healthcare and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI).

The National Employability through Apprenticeship Program (NETAP), country's leading degree apprenticeship program from TeamLease Skills University, has seen a 35 per cent surge in apprentice hiring in the financial year 2020-21, a statement said.

"In fact, from April 2021 to now, hiring continues to spike by approximately 40 per cent, especially across key sectors like healthcare and pharmaceuticals, ITeS, BFSI, e-Commerce amongst others," it noted.

Further, the average stipend pay-out per apprentice has improved by 18 per cent over the years, the statement said, adding that NETAP has disbursed Rs 2,700 crore worth stipends since 2014.

"Not only have candidates become more forthcoming towards apprenticeships but even companies have consciously increased their apprentice hiring as they have realised the merits of this model to build a robust talent pipeline for the future," Sumit Kumar, Vice President NETAP, TeamLease Skills University, said.

Kumar further added that "the apprenticeship route has also enabled aspiring candidates to pave their way into formal employment. Today 95 per cent of the certified apprentices are in formal employment."

Moreover, a majority of these apprentices are now earning an average 45 per cent premium on their wages, as they have advanced their skill expertise through the apprenticeship route, he said.

Incidentally, the pandemic induced shutdowns have also pushed for increase in apprenticeship deployment in Tier-II and Tier-III locations.

Having started with a partnership with 20 employers in 2014, today NETAP is partnered with 500 employers across all sectors and caters to about 140 varied job roles. The program is deployed over 3,500 locations across all states pan India and plans to expand to new pin codes in the next three years.

"We have completed enrolments of close to 2.5 lakh apprentices since our inception and certified close to over 1.25 lakh apprentices. However, we have not even touched the tip of the iceberg and there is still a lot of untapped potential on this front. India's vision is to reach 10 million apprentices in the next 10 years and it is crucial that we scale up our efforts to achieve this goal," Kumar said.