Government is set to ask the private sector to substantially step up hiring of apprentices on the shop floor to help India meet the skills deficit. The Skills Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that the government wants a minimum of 2.5 percent of total private sector workforce to be comprising of apprentices, up to maximum of 10 percent. According to him, the first meeting of the Prime Minister led governing council on skills will be held on June 2 which also includes Cyrus Mistry and Sachin Bansal as members. The meeting will be held to review the National Skill Mission and the national skill policy and the Skill India Mission which the Prime Minister launched. Several ingredients are there, state partnership, overseas employment, infrastructure, eco-system, the policy level which will actually proliferate into the whole system.
He said it is surprising that in a country with centuries of traditional skills, the skilled workforce is just 4.0-4.5 percent, whereas that in Korea, Japan is around 80 percent, said a report by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). He added “it could be possible that we have not found a way to capture the skills or upscale the skills to be recognized as a skill.” The government has set up a committee to look at redefining skills, said Rudy.
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