Union HRD Minister launches the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

New Delhi, India, March 4, 2019 : The Minister for Human Resources Development, Prakash Javadekar has launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS). Launched in New Delhi  recently, the program aims to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said thatthe education with skills is the need of the hour and the SHREYAS will be a major effort in this direction to make our degree students more skilled, capable, employable and aligned to the needs of our economy so that they contribute to country’s progress and also obtain gainful employment. He informed that SHREYAS is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily non-technical, with a view to introduce employable skills into their learning, promote apprenticeship as integral to education and also amalgamate employment facilitating efforts of the Government into the education system so that clear pathways towards employment opportunities are available to students during and after their graduation.

The Minister also informed that SHREYASis a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three Central Ministries, namely the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Labour & Employment viz the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the National Career Service (NCS)and introduction of BA/BSc/BCom (Professional) courses in the higher educational institutions. 

SHREYAS portal will enable educational institutions and industry to log in and provide their respective demand and supply of apprenticeship. The matching of students with apprenticeship avenues will take place as per pre-specified eligibility criteria. The State Governments are expected to play a major role in securing apprenticeship opportunities, apart from the Sector Skill Councils, so that general degree students passing out in April 2019, gain the option of industry & service sector apprenticeship.

Further, the SSCs have identified more than 100 NSQF aligned Job roles/courses in the sectors ofIT, Retail, Logistics, Tourism, Healthcare, BFSI, Electronics, Media, Life Sciences and Management, which the exiting graduates can take up under Apprenticeship program. These courses will be available to them from Academic year April-May, 2019. More than 40 higher educational institutions have already been tied up for taking up embedded apprenticeship courses.

During the occasion, Ministry of Human Resources Development andMinistry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurshiplaunched 7 degree Apprenticeship curricula, which are BBA & BVOCcourses, remodelled with apprenticeship embedded in them. 6 Sector Skill Councils ofIT, Retail, Logistics, Tourism, BFSI, Food Processing have taken the lead. More curricula, currently underway, include Healthcare, Electronics and Media sectors.

The event also witnessed leading industrial organisations entering into apprenticeship contracts with some graduate students in key sectors namely IT &ITes, Media and BFSI.

Following are the details of SHREYAS :

Following are the objectives of SHREYAS

1. To improve employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning process of the higher education system
2. To forge a close functionallink  between education and industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis
3. To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic manner
4. To establish an ‘earn while you learn’ system into higher education
5. To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower
6. To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government

Operation of the Scheme

The primary scheme will be operated in conjunction with National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) which provides for placing of apprentices upto 10% of the total work force in every business/industry.  The scheme will be implemented by the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) , initially the Banking Finance Insurance Services (BFSI), Retail, Health care, Telecom, Logistics, Media, Management services, ITeS and Apparel.  More sectors would be added over time with emerging apprenticeship demand and curriculum adjustments.

Three Tracks in Implementation in SHREYAS

The programme would witness simultaneous implementation along three tracks.

1st Track : Add-on apprenticeship (Degree apprenticeship):

The students who are currently completing the degree programme would be invited to choose a job role of their choice from a selected list of apprenticeship job roles given by the Sector Skill Councils of the MoSDE.   The apprenticeship programme is normally about (6) months and would be prefixed by basic training regarding the sector (theory). The programme would commence immediately after completion of the degree programme (Starting from May each year). During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry. At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be a test conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree certificate. 

2nd track : Embedded Apprenticeship

Under this approach, the existing B.Voc programmes would be restructured into B.A (Professional), B.Sc (Professional) or B.Com (Professional) courses – which would include not only educational input, vocational input, but also a mandatory apprenticeship ranging from 6 to 10 months depending on the requirement of the skill. For example, a BBA course in Logistics would have one semester of classroom teaching and the next one as apprenticeship. Alternatively, one full semester of an existing degree or B.Voc course would be dedicated to apprenticeship with industry. 

During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry, 25% of which would be reimbursed under the NAPS programme.   At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be test conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree certificate.

The process of embedding apprenticeship & skill content into them, or modify the curriculum of existing degree courses  to reduce classroom content and incorporate basic skill training with apprenticeship is currently underway with participation of the Sector Skill Councils and it is expected that these courses would be launched from academic year 2018-19. 

3rd Track : Linking National Career Service with Colleges:

Under this, the National Career Service (NCS) portal of Ministry of Labour& Employment would be linked with the Higher Education institutions. As of now, more than 9,000 employers have posted requirement of more than 2 lakh vacancies, for which the students can get considered. This would help students in institutions which do not have the facility of campus recruitment and would improve their employment opportunities. Apart from this, the students would be trained in soft skills required by the market. 

Modalities

The scheme would be operationalised by coordination of Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the Ministry of Labour. The operation would be as given below:

1. The Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) have identified more than 100 areas where they would be able to find apprenticeship opportunities. They along with the colleges concerned (with the help of their placement cells), would  identify the industries where the apprenticeships would be provided. 
2. Higher Educational Institutions can log-into the SHREYAS portal and express their interest in the skill areas, along with the expected number of students who are expected to opt for it.
3. This demand would be scrutinised by the SSC concerned, who would confirm on portal, the positions available. 
4. Based on this confirmation, the HEI would upload the names of the students on the SHREYAS portal.
5. The NAPS would thereupon generate the Contract between the industry and the student.
6. After this, the monthly stipend would be paid by the industry, and 25% of this would be reimbursed by NAPS portal subject to a maximum of Rs.1,500 per month.
7. The SSC would monitor the progress and would conduct the examination at the end of the apprenticeship period, and would give certificate to the successful candidates. These certificates are valid throughout India for seeking employment.

Stakeholders

Role of the Institutions:   

The higher education institutions would explain the scheme alongwith various options to the students who are in the final year, and elicit their interest in participation.  After collecting interest from various students, the institution would register on the SHREYASportal,  duly indicating the skill job roles alongwith likely number of students in each role.

Role of SSCs : 

SSCs would identify industries for apprenticeship, and would also conduct assessment leading to certification. They would be communicated the interest of the students as registered by the HEIs. They would, based on this, arrange and confirm the establishments where the students would be provided as apprenticeships.  Based on this, the HEIs would collect and furnish, full details of the participating students.The SSC will enrol them as apprentices and generate contracts between the student and the business enterprise.  They will also conduct assessment of the candidate on completion of the apprenticeship and issue certification.  Whereas the certification is not a guarantee for placement, it is expected to vastly enhance his choice of securing employment either in the same enterprise or any other enterprises in that sector.

Role of MSDE (NSDC): 

MSDE operates the NAPS programme through NSDC.  They would not only monitor the programme, progress of the apprentices, but would finance the programme by disbursing the claims from the business enterprises towards stipend reimbursement as per the NAPS.The ongoing efforts of the SSCs would be monitored by MoSDE, which would also periodically introduce new SSCs into the SHREYAS fold. The entire programme would progress with dynamic interface & information sharing between MHRD and MoSDE.

Financing

Under the NAPS scheme, Central Government shares 25% of the stipend per month subject to a maximum of Rs.1500 p.m during the period of the apprenticeship.  Apart from that, an amount upto Rs.7500 will be met towards basic training cost, where needed.

Target

In all the tracks together, it is proposed to cover 50 lakh students by 2022. 

For more details about SHREYAS visit here :  https://shreyas.ac.in