10 million apprentices in 10 years: An achievable reality

Chandigarh, (Kritika) : TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, a leading conglomerate revolutionizing employability in India, and the JustJobs Network, a leading labour market research organization, today launch a one of a kind detailed ‘India Employability Report’. The report ‘Reimagining Employability for the 21st-century - 10 Million Apprentices in 10 Years’, is a detailed deep dive into the overall employability ecosystem in India, analyzing the gaps in education and skilling and highlighting a 12-point agenda for India to scale its apprenticeships.

Setting up the premise, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship & JustJobs Network’s analysis reiterates that Indian youth do not have proper exposure to the world of work when they are learning. Their education and skills are not adequately aligned with what industry requires. Moreover, as the world of work is changing, more employers are keen to hire candidates with the some prior work experience. In this context, apprenticeships have played a crucial role in bridging this gap, transforming the country’s skills pedagogy, enhancing youth employability, and enabling candidates to find right opportunities and assisting organizations to access apprentices.

Sharing her views, Ms Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Director, TeamLease Services, said, “India has the largest heterogeneous youth cohort of 371 million, with close to 3.5% youth joining the workforce every year. We are also a country with rising unemployment and underemployment concerns. Unemployment rate in India went from 2.3% in 2009 to 5.8% in 2018 and youth unemployment rate is at 12.9%. Incidentally, from those who are unemployed, 16% are graduate degree holders and over 14% are post graduate degree students. All of this indicates a significant mismatch between what the world of work needs and what our youth knows. Providing quality education, training and employment to our massive youth cohort is an adventurous task. Furthermore, with social economic challenges of the candidates coupled with an education system which is more focused on the supply front over learning outcomes, the journey becomes even more challenging. Apprenticeships have emerged as an enterprising and promising solution which is truly augmenting the employability landscape in India. However with our current base of mere 500,000 apprentices, we have barely reached our true potential”.