The Success of Apprenticeships

18Beyond Meeting the Needs of the Economy, Reconnecting Work and Values: The Indian Apprenticeship Experience

18.1. Apprenticeships to help industrialization

The enormous need for skilled labor is a real challenge for India’s economy, which has been growing steadily since the 1990s. Experts are expecting 10 lakhs (one lakh equals 100,000) youth enter the labor force every month for the 20 next years.

High-technology industries and the agri-food and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sectors, in particular, are finding it increasingly difficult to find the profiles they are looking for.

India has become a research center and laboratory for a large number of prestigious companies. However it now realizes that it must subcontract, including to China, in order to manufacture the products it designs.

In addition, the strategy launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Make India (MakeIndia), which encourages foreign companies to manufacture in India, has highlighted the gaps in manufacturing and the availability of practical skills that companies are seeking.

This is one of the reasons that has prompted the government to revitalize its vocational training policy to prepare a skilled workforce, long disregarded in the euphoria of new technologies.

18.2. Apprenticeships for development and culture

As early as 1950, the Nehru government put in place a bold training and apprenticeship policy to support industrial development policy. Supervised by the State and implemented mainly by ...