KOLKATA: Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said that the National Employment Exchanges have turned into mere registration centres for the unemployed and the Centre is working to change it to national career council centres.

The Centre would provide Rs 292 crore for the purpose when the exchanges are tranformed to provide employment- related services on the national career service portal, he said here.

The portal would be launched in March next year and would also host 100 model career centres and vocational rehabilitation centers, Dattatreya said.

Under the Apprentice Protsahan Yojna launched in October, the ministry of labour and employment would support one lakh apprentices in the next two and a half years and share 50 per cent of the stipend.

"We have a vision to have more than 20 lakh apprentices in the next few years against the present number of 2.8 lakh. In fact enhanced rates of stipend have also been notified for trade apprentices and the minimum rate of stipend per month payable has been indexed to minimum wage of semi-skilled worker," Dattatreya said.

It was the ministry's sole motto to bring in workers in the unorganized sector under Employees Provident Fund and a special drive has already been launched in Shram Suvidha portal which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October.

The ministry, Dattatreya said, has also launched Project Panchdeep to bring in efficiency and transparency and accountability in different operations of the Employees State Insurance Corporation besides initiating recognition of prior learning (RPL) for construction workers.

"We have more than 4.2 crore workers with low-skill level. Under the RPL scheme we have started to give 15-day gap-training at site to unskilled labourers for the National Council for Vocal Training (NCVT) certificate. A provision of hourly wage compensation of Rs 35 is also there under it," he said.

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