60% feel apprenticeship improves productivity, says paper

Even as India has over 500 million workforce, productivity continues to remain a key challenge as 56% are not skilled enough to meet the demands of the market and through apprenticeship this gap can be reduced, says a whitepaper by National Employability through Apprenticeship Programme (NETAP). 

Close to 60% of the employers find that apprenticeship improves productivity and 76% feel that it helps them address attrition, the whitepaper by NETAP, from Teamlease Skills University, reveals.

There is an increase of 22% in productivity gains from apprenticeships (a 5% increase from 16% last year), it says. It also suggests apprentices have higher productivity than people recruited from other channels and apprenticeships offer a 19% reduction in the hiring costs.

“Apprentice programmes are becoming a competitive advantage for employers, as thoughtfully structured programs deliver much more than their costs, because of higher productivity, lower attrition, lower hiring costs, and faster time to fill open positions. 

“The war for talent is being won by employers who are reimagining their people supply chains and this whitepaper suggests that offering apprenticeships is a powerful tool for this re-imagination,” says NETAP Vice President and Business Head Sumit Kumar.

Only 4% of the Indian labour force receives structured apprenticeships and less than 0.5% of enterprises have formal apprenticeship programmes, Kumar notes. 
“To scale up apprenticeships and reach its true potential, structural reforms are required from a policy perspective. Additionally, a shift is also needed in the mind-set and the practices of organizations,” he adds.

The paper highlights three recommendations to help augment the ecosystem. From a policy perspective, the paper recommends to improve the growth percentage among large enterprises by enabling a business friendly environment and open markets as it holds 2.5% of apprentices as their workforce.

It also suggests to enable the adoption of credit based apprenticeship embedded degree programmes proposed by the National Education Policy (NEP). Additionally, it calls for developing a tripartite association among apprentices, academics and industry to enhance the learning ecosystem.