With the country facing skill gap, more and more companies are relying on apprenticeships, which is giving it a much-needed impetus, as per a survey. More than 50 per cent of the employers surveyed said apprentices were giving them more than 100-150 per cent return on their investment, according to TeamLease Services 'MOOC ((Massive Open Online Courses) in Apprenticeship for Employment and Employability' survey.

From a productivity point of view also, the employers found apprentices to be efficient, it said. The respondent base of the study consisted of 450 apprentices and 200 corporates. Employers felt that apprentices did exceedingly well on key parameters, like productivity, time to turn and return on investment, that they look for in a talent, it said.

Around 50 per cent of the respondents said apprentices turned productive within 45 days of joining work, which is much faster than an average employee, as per the survey. India Inc also felt the productivity of apprentices is around 90 per cent, which indicated that learning by doing is an effective formula to create productive workforce, it said.

"Apprenticeship is an effective skilling or employment tool, which can help India get closer to its target of skilling 500 million and filling 120 million jobs in 24 key sectors, including construction, retail, transportation logistics and automobile over the next six years," TeamLease Services Vice President- NETAP (National Employability Through Apprenticeship Programme) Sumit Kumar said. He said while jobs can be created, the biggest challenge is matching them with talent. "Though we add millions of youth every year to the workforce, they are not equipped to take advantage of the possibilities. The only optimal solution to bridge this gap and allow both corporate as well as talent to leverage the growth is by adopting learning while doing or earning while learning in a massive way," Kumar said.

Further, the survey revealed that apprentices or apprenticeship programmes seem to be well received by the western states rather than the southern states. While the western region topped the list in terms of availability of apprentices, the southern region was at the bottom indicating a lack of enthusiasm in the southern states to undertake apprenticeship programs, the survey said. From a qualification perspective, technicians with a vocational education constituted the largest pool of apprentices, it said.

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