Standing committee on labour directs govt to track placement data on NCS portal

The standing committee on labour, textiles and skills development has pulled up the ministry of labour and employment on low placements of candidates through the National Career Service portal despite the large number of vacancies, suggesting immediate amendments to the portal to track placement data to make it effective.

“The Committee is constrained to note that as against the 1.94 crore vacancies posted on the Portal, the actual placements are only 35.23 lakh candidates, which is far from satisfactory,” it said in its report submitted in Parliament on Friday.

“The Committee strongly opine that the very purpose of the NCS Portal will fail if the aforesaid modifications are not carried out in the Portal itself,” it said, advising that the labour and employment secretary take responsibility in the matter and report the changes made in the Portal to the Committee at the earliest.


“In the interest of transparency, accountability and effective monitoring, the Committee desires that all out efforts be made by the ministry to lay down a robust mechanism for obtaining feedback from employers and the selected candidates so as to track the data on actual placements made through NCS portal, state or district or sector-wise,” it said, suggesting such data should invariably be compiled, updated and published at regular intervals and the progress made in this regard communicated to the Committee.

In a separate report by the Basavaraj Bommai-led standing committee on skills development and entrepreneurship, the ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship informed the committee that it is initiating a pilot scheme in the north-eastern region (NER) under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)-2 under which additional incentive of up to Rs 1500 is provided for apprentices who are domiciled in the NER and undertake apprenticeships within the NER (excluding the domiciled State) or outside the region.

According to the report, in respect of the pilot scheme under NAPS-2, the committee urged the ministry to evolve a strategy for activating the implementing agencies and leveraging the state media channels, local newspapers, and community radio to ensure that the benefits of the scheme are disseminated to all the potential beneficiaries.