MUMBAI: India needs two lakh apprentices annually for the next 10 years in order to avoid any employability "catastrophe" in the country, according to staffing company TeamLease Services.

"With 10 lakh youth entering the workforce every year for the next 20 years and more than 50 per cent of them lacking employability skills, India is soon going to be facing not a demographic dividend but a catastrophe,"

TeamLease Services Co-Founder Rituparna Chakraborty said. The only solution to address this job emergency is to create a robust apprenticeship culture, she said.

India needs 2 lakh apprentices for the next 10 years to ease the growing employability crisis, Chakraborty added.

Even as policymakers all over the world have recognised 'learning by doing' and 'learning while earning' as a very important vehicle for tackling the skill crisis, the country's apprenticeship regime has not gained the desired momentum, she maintained.

"We have only 3 lakh apprentices while Germany has 3 million, Japan 10 million and China 20 million. From an employer perspective also the participation rate in India is negligible."

In an effort to revitalise the apprenticeship ecosystem and increase the number of apprentices from the current 3 lakhs to 2 crore, TeamLease Skill University in association with CII, AICTE (All India Council for Technical

Education), National Skill Development Corporation has formulated NETAP (National Employability Through Apprenticeship Program).

Established to increase corporate participation, NETAP allows companies to appoint apprentices in any trade or function at any location in India.

Further, while corporates have to pay a stipend equivalent to the applicable unskilled minimum wage, they spend qualifies as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contribution.

From an apprentice perspective, NETAP offers opportunities across 22 high growth industries for apprenticeships across the country for durations between 3 and 24 months, the staffing company said.

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