HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, May 3: Following the objective of engaging more than 10 lakh apprentices over the next year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) organised a virtual workshop with Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) on Tuesday. CPSEs were briefed on the latest reforms and initiatives undertaken by the ministry and were encouraged to engage more apprentices. The workshop was attended by CMDs, HR managers, and CSR heads of more than 100 CPSEs who shared their work on apprenticeship training and discussed opportunities and challenges in making the apprenticeship model a success in the country.
Minister for Education, Skill Development, and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan called upon the CPSEs to explore innovative ways to drive skill development, including adopting Industrial Training Centers, Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) in their local areas, engaging more apprentices, aligning their skilling framework with NSQF, leverage CSR to augment skill development efforts under the overall Skill India Mission.
“We are rolling out the recommendations of the NEP2020. We must create strong integration of education and skilling to create a more vibrant and versatile workforce. The nature of work is changing. We must introduce knowledge around topics like energy, sustainability, and data management. I call upon PSUs too to put forward their suggestions & ideas for preparing a dynamic, progressive and modern National Curriculum Framework,” he further added.
Addressing the CPSEs, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, minister of state, MSDE & MEITY said, “The companies should not only focus on fresh skilling but also up-skilling, re-skilling and multi-skilling as well; so that they can easily adapt to the fast-changing nature of jobs today. Apprenticeship being one of the most sustainable models of skill development, should be extensively promoted by both MSDE and the management at CPSUs. Skilling should either be incentivized or made mandatory across direct and indirect workforce across all companies. We should ensure that our workforce is formally skilled and certified under the Skill India Mission.”
Notably, the CPSEs were encouraged to enhance the number of apprentices engaged by them to a max of 15% of the total employee strength including contractual staff in the current band of 2.5% to 15%. CPSEs were also asked to support and involve in innovative collaborations that will enable a seamless flow of industry-ready trained manpower and gradually move towards hiring certified skilled workers at PSUs and instruct sub-contractors of CPSUs to hire a certain percentage of certified skilled persons under their contract, engaging apprentices, training existing workers through RPL without disturbing their regular activities.
Moreover, Skill India, in partnership with the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, also organised a day-long ‘Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Mela’ across 700 locations in the country, on April 21 last. The event saw 1,51,497 students and 8,968 establishments participating from over 30 sectors, including power, retail, telecom, IT, electronics, and automotive. More than 29000 apprentices were hired in a single day at this industry-youth connect platform.
