The Union government is set to relax norms for public sector units (PSUs) to allow them to hire apprentices in service sectors and to allow them to hire in larger numbers than what is permitted now.
The ministry of heavy industries and the skill development ministry are jointly meeting representatives of more than 50 top PSUs on Thursday to hammer out a road map and the explore the possibility of creating a financial incentive plan for them as part of a move to aid employment generation. Surveys have shown that there are not enough jobs for the 12 million new entrants to the labour market every year.
The Union government will relax norms and allow PSUs to hire apprentices for service sector arms. The PSUs will also be allowed to hire 15% of their total headcount as apprentices, a move that is aimed at boosting the skill development mission and indirectly reducing their human resources cost, according to two government officials and documents reviewed by Mint.
“At present, PSUs are taking apprentices only for manufacturing roles. We want to expand that to service sectors... Why cannot service segments of these state-run firms take apprentices?” asked one of the two officials on condition of anonymity.
“State-run companies have a mandate to take a minimum of 2.5% of their headcount as apprentices. We are increasing this to 15%. This is a move that will be win-win for both PSUs and the job creation initiative and help more than 600,000 youngsters training on the shop floor,” sad the second official mentioned above.
Government authorities believe that as PSUs are facing a manpower crunch in excess of 12% to 15%, through this initiative, they can get good working hands at a low cost to the company.
“We have new age companies in energy such as IGL and IRCTC who would need a lot of hands in the service sector,” said the first official.
The apprenticeship system is the best training system worldwide for hiring the right candidates. At present, Indian companies employ less than 300,000 apprentices, but the government seeks to increase this number three times over the next four months.
“Apprenticeship can play a key part in the task of upskilling India’s workforce, offering the opportunity to share costs among different parties (employers, individuals and the government) and to involve governments, employers and workers in partnerships. (Ministries concerned) now aim to broaden their arms by way of joint collaborations with industry bodies, and central sector PSUs to scale up the initiative of apprenticeship so as to create a large impact on the ground,” according to the meeting’s agenda document seen by Mint.
The second official said both the ministries will ask PSUs to take students who clear short-term skills programmes under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, along with students of long-term programmes offered by both technical colleges under the All India Council of Technical Education and industrial training institutes run by the directorate general of training.
