Minister for Human Resources Development,i Prakash Javadekar 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 today, 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 that the 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 SHREYAS is 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 and Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship launched 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.
