COVID-19 impact: Reverse migration leading to rise in demand for apprentices, says TeamLease report

Reverse migration of workers due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) led lockdown is leading to a rise in demand for apprentices. A report by National Employability through Apprenticeship programme (NETAP) showed that 46 percent employers are keen to increase their apprentice pool from July to December.

NETAP is a degree apprenticeship programme from TeamLease Skills University. Despite the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, apprentice hiring is seeing a positive sentiment across many sectors and regions, the report said.

“One of the primary drivers for this positive momentum is that around 32 percent employers have been looking at apprenticeship to offset the workforce scarcity that they have been facing due to reverse migration that has happened because of COVID-19,” the report said.

About 25 percent companies have been hiring apprentices to meet the increased demand for products and services due to the pandemic, it said. About 27 percent of organisations interviewed, expressed their intent to hire apprentices to optimise manpower cost at the basic level.

The Apprenticeship Outlook report contains insights on employer sentiment in relation to apprentice hiring for the period July to December. Analysis is based on the historical data of apprentice hiring and findings from a survey of 600 employers across 18 sectors and 14 cities.

Apprenticeship refers to a skill development programme where a person is engaged by a company as a trainee to learn the trade or profession in exchange for a job for a fixed period.

In effect, it serves as a transition phase for a school/college student from the classroom to a job position. The apprentice also learns soft skills, work culture, ethics and organisational behaviour while undergoing training.

A company can hire up to 15 percent of its total strength as apprentices. India is estimated to have close to 65,000 apprentices.

The NETAP report said that the net apprenticeship outlook will be promising in cities like Ahmedabad (42 percent), Hyderabad (40 percent), Mumbai (39 percent) and Chennai (38 percent).

The top sectors where apprentices will be in demand are healthcare and pharmaceuticals (42 percent), manufacturing and engineering (40 percent), retail (38 percent) and e-commerce (38 percent).

From a category perspective, the proportion of employers increasing hiring for trade, technician and graduate apprentices is 31 percent, 22 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Sumit Kumar, Vice President - NETAP, TeamLease Skill University, said while in the initial months of the lockdown there was a dip, hiring intent has bounced back quite aggressively, especially since June/July.