NEW DELHI: The muted response to its flagship apprenticeship programme – National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme – has prompted the government to introduce undergraduate apprenticeship degree courses in the country along with the traditional undergraduate courses in commerce, science and humanities.

The government is hoping that the first-of-its-kind initiative will give a big boost to ‘Make in India’ programme with more trained and employable workforce available to meet the industry demand. The ministry of human resource development has agreed to introduce undergraduate courses in apprenticeship after several rounds of high-level deliberations with the stakeholder ministries, a senior government official told ET.

“The HRD ministry will, as early as next month, invite institutes to start undergraduate degrees in apprenticeship,” the official said, adding that initially the programme will be voluntary before it is made mandatory in the later stages if needed.

According to the official, HRD ministry feels in the absence of proper apprenticeship training, both at the corporate as well as government levels, the graduate passouts are often unemployable as the skill sets are much below the requirement. The ministry is working out the details of the courses to be offered and how it could incentivise institutes to undertake these courses, including creating the desired infrastructure.

Today, 82% of all apprentices are ITI pass-outs and 89% of them are in the manufacturing sector. The idea of introducing apprenticeship at the undergraduate level will ensue there are a mix of apprentices for all sectors and their skill sets are up to the industry levels. Launched in 2016, the government had aimed at increasing engagements of apprentices through National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme from current 2.3 lakh to 50 lakh cumulatively by 2020.