Lok Sabha Question No. 213 (STARRED), answered on 2022-08-01
Subject: Apprenticeship Mela
Ministry: SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Asked by: Sambhajirao Mane Dhairyasheel, Ravi Kishan Shukla

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO: *213 TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.08.2022

## APPRENTICESHIP MELA

## *213   SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL SAMBHAJIRAO MANE: SHRI RAVI KISHAN:

## Will  the  Minister  of  SKILL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  ENTREPRENEURSHIP  be pleased to state :

- (a) the details of the Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Meta held so far since inception of the programme,State/UT wise;
- (b) the aims and objectives of holding the above said Apprenticeship MeIa;
- (c) the total number of applicants who participated in the Apprenticeship Mela and the number of apprenticeship offers made on the platform as on today;
- (d) the manner in which such Apprenticeship Mela would infuse skill training to youth and help in providing employment opportunities to talented individuals across the country;
- (e) whether the Government  has made any assessment to gauge the success  of such Melas, if so, the details thereof and if not the reasons therefore; and
- (f) whether the Government proposes to organise more such Apprenticeship Melas across the country on routine basis to provide employment to youth and if so, the State/UT wise details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

- (a) to (f) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (f) OF LOK SABHA STARRED BE QUESTION NO. *213 TO ANSWERED ON 01.08.2022 ASKED BY SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL  SAMBHAJIRAO  MANE and SHRI RAVI KISHAN  REGARDING 'APPRENTICESHIP MELA'.

- (a)  Two  Pradhan  Mantri  National  Apprenticeship  Mela  (PMNAM)  have  been  conducted during the month of June-2022 and July-2022 since its inception. The Melas were conducted in 195 districts / locations in June 2022, and 212 districts / locations in July 2022. The State / UT-wise list is at Annexure-1.
- (b)  The  Government  is  striving  to  train  1  million  youth  per  year  through  apprenticeship training. For this PMNAM is being used as a platform where there is active participation of establishments/industries  and  candidates,  which  also  provides  awareness  to  the  youth  on various opportunities existing across the participating establishments/industries. Thus, PMNAM  helps  to  bring  greater  number  of  youth  and  establishments/industries  into  the apprenticeship fold.
- (c) A total of 69,983 candidates participated in the two Melas. Post-Mela, 52,873 apprenticeship contracts were generated.
- (d) Apprenticeship Melas create opportunities for apprenticeship for youth in the establishments  /  industries  to  bridge  the  skill  gap  by  imparting  on-the-job  training  and  to make them industry-ready and employable.
- (e) The success of the Mela can be assessed through number of establishments/industries registering, number of candidates registering in the Mela, and through number of contracts generated post-Mela, which is as below:

| Mela Date     |   No of districts/ location | No. of Establishment Registered   | No. of Candidates Registered   | No of candidates attended   | No of contracts generated   |
|---------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
| 13-June- 2022 |                         195 | 1,485                             | 81,992                         | 36,913                      | 24,875                      |
| 11-July- 2022 |                         212 | 1,466                             | 84,232                         | 33,070                      | 27,998                      |

(f) Yes, Sir. The Government proposes to organize Apprenticeship Melas across the country on a monthly basis. States / UTs have accordingly been advised to organize PMNAM every 2 nd Monday  in  1/3  of  total  number  of  districts  with  the  flexibility  for  choosing  the  district  / location and the day of Mela based on local conditions / festivals, etc. so that all districts are covered once in a quarter, and four times in a year.

(i) To  make  the  Mela  successful,  wide  publicity  is  given  through  Government  Media Channels like  Press  Information  Bureau  (PIB),  Doordarshan,  Community  Radios,  All  India Radio,  social media  platforms  like MyGov,  print  media,  digital  media  (SMS),  active State/district participation through ITIs at the local level, through leaflets, mobilizing schools and colleges, publicity drive by Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), Third Party Aggregators (TPAs) and  Regional  Directorates  of  Skill  Development  &  Entrepreneurship  (RDSDEs)  and  Local Industry  Associations.  The  Government  is  also  organising  250  apprenticeship  awareness workshops  throughout  the  country  to  create  awareness  about  apprenticeship  among  the students and the establishments / industries and to create opportunities for apprenticeship for youth.    This  will  lead  to  greater  participation  of  establishments  and  candidates  converting candidate's applications / registrations into apprenticeship contracts.

(ii) Various reforms, including amendments in 2014 to the Apprentices Act, 1961 and the Rules in 2019 and launch of National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), have been carried  out  to  facilitate  the  establishments  to  engage  more  number  of  apprentices.  The reforms to the Apprentices Act, 1961 in 2014, and to the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992 in 2019 are:

- The apprentice intake band higher limit has been increased from 10% to 15%. This allows establishments to hire more apprentices.
- Mandatory staff strength of establishments (to engage  apprentices) has  been reduced  to  30  from  40.  This  has  brought  in  more  establishments  under  the ambit of the Act.
- Optional engagement limit has been lowered to 4 from the existing 6. This will also lead to the increase in voluntary organisations for engaging apprentices.
- The stipend has been delinked from the minimum wages and now linked to the educational  /  skill  qualification  of  candidate  required  for  particular  course  / trade.  This  has  removed  the  anomalies  in  stipend  rates  ensuring  the  stipend uniformity.
- Optional trades have been introduced which offer flexibility in the course design to the industries in the service sector.
- Apprenticeship-embedded degree courses are allowed.
- Non-engineering degree holders also can undergo training for upskilling.
- Provision  for  imprisonment  for  noncompliance  of  provisions  of  the  Act  is replaced by penalty.

(iii) The  Ministry  of  Skill  Development  and  Entrepreneurship  has  taken  many  steps,  in consultation with various stakeholders, to simplify the portal and the processes, and to revise the NAPS guidelines to bring increase in the number of establishments and apprentices. Five Office Memorandums (OMs) were issued between December 2021 and July 2022, to simplify portal/apprenticeship  processes  and  to  make  the  process  of  apprenticeship  engagement easier:

- The  functionality  of  apprenticeship  portal  has  been  enhanced  as  per  the  user requirement,
- Guidelines on National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and Basic Training Provider (BTP)have been revised to make the processes easier.
- The duration of Optional Trades courses have been revised (mostly one year).
- Industrial Training Institute (ITI) pass candidates are exempted from theory examination.
- All  India  Trade  Test  (AITT)for  apprentices  is  being  scheduled  quarterly  so  that certificates are issued throughout the year to the candidates.
- Bigger establishments are allowed to provide basic training in their premises.
- For  ease  of  central  jurisdiction  establishments,  it  is  allowed  to  selectone  Regional Directorate of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (RDSDE)instead of many.
- No proof of payment to be uploaded by establishments, if payment is done via portal payment gateway, and
- Stipend  support  to  establishments  allowed  if  Basic  Training  (BT)  and  On-the-job training (OJT) is done in simultaneous mode.
- (iv) Further  Ministry  is  engaging  with  Central  Public  Sector  Units  (CPSUs)  continuously and a virtual meet was held on 02-05-2022with the top management of  CPSUs to engage more  apprentices  and  also  encourage  their  contractors  and  the  entire  chain  of  dealers/ suppliers  to  engage  apprentices.  Also,  CPSUs'  participation  is  being  envisaged  in  the proposed  250  apprenticeship  awareness  workshops  and  in  monthly  apprenticeship  Mela throughout the country.
- (v) PMNAM  brings  dynamic  participation  of  establishments/companies  and  candidates and provides awareness  to the youth on various opportunities existing across the participating  companies.  The  thrust  given  by  the  Ministry  towards  apprenticeship  training through reforms (facilitation and process simplifications), awareness workshops, continuous engagement with establishments / employers, apprenticeship Mela, and public reach out to create awareness about apprenticeship training among the students and the establishments are  making  positive  impact.  All  these  initiatives  have  led  to  increase  in  the  number  of apprentices from 2.90 lakh in 2020-21 to 5.8 lakh in 2021-22 and expenditure from Rs. 120 crore to Rs. 217 crore during the same period, and it is expected that it will lead to number of apprentices engaged to reach 10 lakh in the current year.

## Annexure-1 (For STARRED QUESTION NO: *213 TO BE ANSWERED ON 01-08-2022)

Districts / locations state-wise for the PMNAM conducted during the month of June and July 2022.

| Sl No   | State / UT                               | No of Districts/Locations   | No of Districts/Locations   |
|---------|------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
|         |                                          | Jun-2022                    | Jul-2022                    |
| 1       | Andhra Pradesh                           | 8                           | 9                           |
| 2       | Arunachal Pradesh                        | 1                           | 6                           |
| 3       | Assam                                    | 11                          | 0                           |
| 4       | Bihar                                    | 13                          | 13                          |
| 5       | Chhattisgarh                             | 9                           | 9                           |
| 6       | Goa                                      | 1                           | -                           |
| 7       | Gujarat                                  | 11                          | 11                          |
| 8       | Haryana                                  | 6                           | 8                           |
| 9       | Himachal Pradesh                         | 4                           | 3                           |
| 10      | Jharkhand                                | 8                           | 8                           |
| 11      | Karnataka                                | 8                           | 9                           |
| 12      | Kerala                                   | 4                           | 5                           |
| 13      | Madhya Pradesh                           | 0                           | 22                          |
| 14      | Maharashtra                              | 12                          | 12                          |
| 15      | Manipur                                  | -                           | -                           |
| 16      | Meghalaya                                | 4                           | -                           |
| 17      | Mizoram                                  | 0                           | -                           |
| 18      | Nagaland                                 | 0                           | -                           |
| 19      | Odisha                                   | 10                          | 10                          |
| 20      | Punjab                                   | 8                           | 8                           |
| 21      | Rajasthan                                | 11                          | 11                          |
| 22      | Sikkim                                   | 2                           | 2                           |
| 23      | Tamil Nadu                               | 13                          | 13                          |
| 24      | Telangana                                | 11                          | 11                          |
| 25      | Tripura                                  | 0                           | 3                           |
| 26      | Uttar Pradesh                            | 25                          | 25                          |
| 27      | Uttarakhand                              | 2                           | 2                           |
| 28      | West Bengal                              | -                           | -                           |
| 29      | Andaman and Nicobar                      | -                           | -                           |
| 30      | Chandigarh                               | -                           | 0                           |
| 31      | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | 1                           | 1                           |
| 32      | Delhi                                    | 4                           | 4                           |
| 33      | Jammu and Kashmir                        | 7                           | 7                           |
| 34      | Lakshadweep                              | 1                           | -                           |
| 35      | Ladakh                                   | 0                           | -                           |
| 36      | Puducherry                               | 0                           | -                           |
| Total   | Total                                    | 195                         | 212**                       |

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