How to Start an Apprenticeship Program?

You don’t have to be Luke Skywalker to know that apprenticeship under a master like Yoda could work wonders for your Jedi sabre wielding career! For a long time, apprenticeship was the only kind of option for anyone at the start of their careers. No one could just walk into a full-time job with a great salary and benefits as soon as they get qualified until as far as the 18^th Century. In fact, for many people, it all began with an apprenticeship, not necessarily a formal education.

Why Should You Opt. for Apprenticeship?

The average salary post apprenticeship in the US is $80,000 a year. According to Glassdoor, In India, the average salary of an apprentice is around 3.26 lakhs a year. Not just this, but in the US the employment retention rate post apprenticeship is as high as 90%. So why is apprenticeship not very popular in India?

The difference, according to the MyGov.in website, is the perception that people have towards apprenticeship. In Germany, it is seen as an integral path of career development, in UK as a means of earning a steady salary. In India, it is still not very popular as compared to a formal salaried full-time job and is only used by certain organisations who are aware of it.

Origins of Apprenticeship

Though there may have been a concept of apprenticeship in older civilizations, the origin of the modern word ‘apprentice’ begins in England in the 16^th Century with the establishment of the Statute of Artificers and was popular through the 17^th and 18^th centuries. An apprentice was a person who was taken in to learn the trade by a master craftsman.

Apprenticeship lasted for as long as 7 years. And anyone was eligible for apprenticeship, it did not depend on your class, it could be anyone from the poor to the gentry. Apprentices also depended entirely on their masters for food, shelter, and clothing.

The Significance of Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship ensured that there was a steady supply of talent for every occupation and that there was transference of skills from one generation to the next, each discovering something more about it and helping the next learn.

Apprenticeship has regained lost ground and a redefinition, which we will look at in detail in some time, in the 20^th Century in Europe. This last decade, apprenticeship has become a steppingstone for several young entrepreneurs in India.

In the modern age, apprenticeship remains significant because of its ability to reduce the cost to a company, improve the skills of trainee level applicants, and improve the overall efficiencies and capabilities of a nation by training several people on skills that are crucial to its advancement.

The Modern System of Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship remained popular throughout the 19^th Century by the end of which there were around 340,000 apprentices engaged in several occupations including shipyards, construction, metal and woodworking.

The popularity of apprenticeship continued in the UK with up to a third of all boys leaving school becoming apprentices. The system was criticized for not being up to date and able to meet the demands of industries in the 1960s. Then in 1993, the modern system of apprenticeship was introduced. This meant two things:

Modern apprentices would count as employees and would be fairly paid.
They wouldn’t work towards a specific period but to achieve a specific set of skills.

Introduction of Apprenticeship in India

The National Apprenticeship Scheme was actioned in the year 2016 by the Government of India to provide financial, technological, and legal support to apprentices in companies. The NAPS hopes to increase the number of apprentices from just over 2 lakhs to 50 lakhs in a few years.

Though it is mandatory for any workforce that has more than 30 employees, they are free to allocate between 2.5 to 15% of their workforce to apprenticeship. For organisations that have between 4 and 29 employees, it is an optional requirement to have apprentices. Organisations that have less than four employees are not permitted to engage apprentices.

According to the Government of India, the potential for NAPS is great in India, and most of the talent is untapped. According to the Government of India’s Sixth Economic Census, there are nearly 26.3 lakh MSMEs having 6 or more workers. If each organisation employs at least one apprentice, the number of apprentices in India could go up at least by 26 lakhs.

Applying for an Apprenticeship Program – For Apprentices

There are several steps to apply for an apprenticeship program in India. We cannot assure that the steps would be the same in other countries, as the aims of the program, the documents they require, and the eligibility criteria would all be different. Here is how you can apply for a NAPS program in India.

Head over to the Apprenticeship Portal of India and complete the registration as directed.
You will receive a registration number with an activation email on your e-mail ID.
Activate your ID on the portal by following the link and completing the steps.
On the dashboard, there will be three sections you can always keep track of:
1. Applications – For applications you have sent.
2. Contracts – For contracts you have signed.
3. Invitations – For invites received from companies interested in you.
Access Apprenticeship Opportunities on the top toolbar to access the opportunity search.

That’s it! Good luck with your apprenticeship journey

How to Start an Apprenticeship Program – For Employers

So, now that you have decided to implement an apprenticeship program, you must decide on how you will go about it. A successful apprenticeship program begins with planning and ends with getting the right people on board and sourcing the right apprentices.

Phase 1: Investigate

1. Understand your needs

This is the first step of the investigation phase. In this phase, you must ascertain how apprenticeship can help your company. There are six questions you must ask during the needs understanding phase.

How many apprentices are you planning to employ?
How long will the apprenticeship last for?
What are the criteria for completion of an apprenticeship?
What roles will need and benefit from apprenticeship?
Does your company have funds to run an apprenticeship program?
Who will oversee the apprenticeship program and administer its various components?

2. Decide on the Pay

Before you announce vacancies for apprentices, you must consider how much you are willing to pay them at the most. Remember that there is a certain amount you can redeem from the Government of India as a stipend. Apart from this you will receive technological support as well from the government, which you can make use of. So, you will have some savings which you can direct towards the apprentices you will be bringing on board. These are the four questions you must ask:

How much will you be paying the apprentices you will be enrolling?
What is the source of the funds?
Is the pay agreed upon by all stakeholders?
Will you be using any of the CSR funds for this?

3. Decide on the kind of training you will provide

The kind of training, its duration and its quality will all decide its effectiveness in aligning the apprentices with your organisational goals and making them more productive. Before you implement an apprenticeship program, you must decide on the kind of training you will provide the apprentices. The six important questions you must ask yourself are:

Will you be designing the training course?
What percentage of your apprentices will need basic training?
How many hours will be devoted to training the apprentices?
What percentage of the training will be conducted by a training partner(s)?
Will the training be carried in-house or at the premises of the training partner?
What percentage of it will be on-the-job and what percentage of it will be theoretical?

Phase 2: Build

1. Build a training program

An optional trade differs from a designated trade. In a designated trade, the centre actually gives guidelines on how the training must happen and in an optional trade, the company is free to design its own training program. Assuming that yours is an optional trade, here is how you can build a training program.

Assign stakeholders to different parts of the training program.
Create a training schedule or calendar that clearly outlines how it will happen.
Include industry experts on your panel when you are developing the program.
Be wary of diversity and provide controls for accessibility when designing the course.
Include safety guidelines that can be followed making it safe for every new apprentice.
Have clear learning goals for each module and objectives for each section.
For on-the-job training, assign scores based on achievements and review it every week.
Keep reviewing the training program and improve as it goes year on year.
Assign a manager who assumes ownership of the entire training program.
Identify any third-party administrators who would be willing to help with your NAPS training.

2. Build a Mentorship program

Building an industry-certified mentorship program is crucial to making your apprentices understand the needs of the industry, the efforts that will make a difference, and the methods to use at work to improve their productivity and encourage innovation. Here are the five things you must do to build a mentorship program:

Work on the mentorship program and decide how much of the apprenticeship duration can be devoted to it.
Get mentors on board who have experience in the job role.
Understand each mentor’s specialization and assign them the topics they are most familiar with.
Assign a manager who takes care of the mentorship program.
Look for a third-party administrator who can help with the mentorship of apprentices.

Phase 3: Hiring the right people

1. Apprentice acquisition

Last but not the least, begins the process of hiring apprentices who will make the company proud, because you might be looking to retain them. Here are six things you must do:

Identify and build relationships with young talent across the country.
Recognise their unique skills and what they are most interested in.
Recognise what motivates them to work and how they can contribute.
Keep reviewing the talent pipeline and identify potential candidates.
Have multiple departments interview the candidate to identify a fit, if need be.
Make sure the candidate is a great culture fit for the organisation.

2. Apprentice management

Once the apprentice is onboarded, the process of apprentice management begins. Let us look at some of the steps now.

Set clear goals for each apprentice at the workplace.
Develop a work schedule that they must mandatorily follow.
Offer an orientation to the workplace.
Encourage open communication and note-taking.
Listen to their suggestions or concerns and offer solutions.

How Alp Can Help as a TPA for your NAPS Program

Alp Consulting, a reputed HR Consulting Company, is a TPA for the NAPS program and can significantly impact how the NAPS program works in your organisation and improve the quality of apprenticeship.

We have been working on the NAPS and NATS (National Apprenticeship Training Scheme) ever since they were instituted by the Government of India in 2016. With Alp Consulting, experience lowered attrition rates, reduced expenses, and much better training for your apprentices at every step of their apprenticeship journey and prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow.

We could be the Master Yoda to your Skywalkers! Let’s train them together!

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