MSME apprenticeship may become shorter, better-paid

NEW DELHI: The government is considering a slew of measures to boost apprenticeship training through millions of micro, small and medium enterprises in India, as it seeks to create a large pool of skilled workforce in the country.

These measures include reducing the tenure of apprenticeship from six months to three months, raising stipend subsidy for MSMEs to 50% from 25%, doling out tax incentives to MSMEs for hiring apprentices and roping in the private sector for providing manpower to MSMEs that often face staff shortage, a senior government official, aware of the deliberations, told ET.

Depending on the fiscal burden on the exchequer, the government could either tweak the existing apprenticeship schemes or draft a new scheme dedicated to MSMEs, which account for 38.4% of the total manufacturing output and contribute 45.03% of the country's total exports. The government has held several rounds of discussions with the industry and is expected to unveil the roadmap for hiring of apprentices by MSMEs by the middle of this year.


India has an estimated 64 million MSMEs employing 23% of the country's labour force, or 110 million workers, and contributing 27% to the country's GDP.

Sumit Kumar, chief strategy officer at TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, said there is a need for a tripartite engagement between industry, academia and the private sector to boost apprenticeship training in India.

"The industry chambers and staffing companies can work as third-party aggregators to deploy apprentices with MSMEs across the country," he said, adding it will give a significant push to apprenticeship training in India, which will be in sync with the country's economic growth and aspirations to be a developed nation by 2047.