Source: Kurukshetra Magazine & Shreyas Portal
SHREYAS is a central government scheme for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS). The program aims to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend.
Various Ministries involved in it
SHREYAS is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three Central Ministries, namely;
- The Ministry of Human Resource Development
- Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and
- The Ministry of Labour & Employment viz the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the National Career Service (NCS) and introduction of BA/BSc/BCom (Professional) courses in the higher educational institutions.
Objectives of Shreyas
- To improve the employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning process of the higher education system.
- To forge a close functional link between education and industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis.
- To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic manner.
- To establish an ‘earn while you learn’ system into higher education.
- To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower.
- To link the student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government.
Operation of the Scheme
The primary scheme is operated in conjunction with the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) which provides for placing apprentices up to 10% of the total workforce in every business/industry. The scheme is being implemented by the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), initially the Banking Finance Insurance Services (BFSI), Retail, Health care, Telecom, Logistics, Media, Management services, ITeS and Apparel.
Three Tracks in Implementation in SHREYAS
The programme would witness simultaneous implementation along three tracks.
1st Track: Add-on apprenticeship (Degree apprenticeship):
- The students who are currently completing the degree programme would be invited to choose a job role of their choice from a selected list of apprenticeship job roles given by the Sector Skill Council of the MoSDE.
- The apprenticeship programme is normally about (6) months and would be prefixed by basic training regarding the sector (theory).
- The programme would commence immediately after completion of the degree programme (Starting from May each year).
- During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry.
- At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be a test conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree certificate.
2nd track: – Embedded Apprenticeship:
- Under this approach, the existing B.Voc programmes would be restructured into B.A (Professional), B.Sc (Professional) or B.Com (Professional) courses – which would include not only educational input, vocational input but also a mandatory apprenticeship ranging from 6 to 10 months depending on the requirement of the skill. For example, a BBA course in Logistics would have one semester of classroom teaching and the next one as apprenticeship. Alternatively, one full semester of an existing degree or B.Voc course would be dedicated to an apprenticeship with industry.
- During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per month by the industry, 25% of which would be reimbursed under the NAPS programme.
- At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be tests conducted by the Sector Skill Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificates in addition to their degree certificate.
3rd Track: Linking National Career Service with Colleges:
- Under this, the National Career Service (NCS) portal of the Ministry of Labour& Employment would be linked with the Higher Education institutions.
- Apart from this, the students would be trained in soft skills required by the market.
Financing
- Under the NAPS scheme, the Central Government shares 25% of the stipend per month subject to a maximum of Rs.1500 p.m during the period of the apprenticeship.
- Apart from that, an amount up to Rs.7500 will be met towards basic training cost, where needed.
Target
In all the tracks together, it is proposed to cover 50 lakh students by 2022.