Question : Apprenticeship Facilities

(a) whether the number of registered companies is almost 8 lakh in the country while apprenticeship facility is provided by merely 23000 companies and if so, the steps being taken to provide the facility of apprentice in all the companies;
(b) whether the target of providing apprentice to 5 lakh youth was set during the year 2016-17 and if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the said target has been achieved and if not, the reasons therefor;
(d) the number of youth provided apprentice training till date, State and company-wise; and
(e) the steps taken by the Government against the companies which are not providing apprenticeship facility for achieving the set target?

(a) Presently, there are 43,306 companies and about 8 lakh candidates are registered on the Apprenticeship Portal. Apprenticeship training is provided to the apprentices in only those companies where training facilities for the trade/ course/ job role are available.

(b)&(c) A new scheme “National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)” has been launched in August, 2016. The target under the NAPS for the financial year 2016-17 was 5 lakh apprentices. 2.9 lakh apprentices were trained during the financial year 2016-17. Target couldn’t be achieved due to lack of awareness of NAPS among the stakeholders.

(d) Details of youth provided apprenticeship training till date, State-wise and company-wise is given at Annexure.

(e) Companies have been requested to engage apprentices as per the Apprentices Act, 1961. Awareness campaigns in the form of workshops/ meetings, have been conducted. Advertisements have been published in leading newspapers.
*******