Around 77% Indian cos to hire more apprentices in 2022: Report

Around 77% employers are likely to increase their hiring of apprentices in July-December 2022, up from 72% in the first half of the year, according to the findings of the latest TeamLease Apprenticeship Outlook report.

The net apprenticeship outlook (NAO) or the difference between companies looking to increase their engagement of apprentices and those expecting a decrease increased to 69%, a 13-percentage-point increase over the previous half year, the steepest in two years.

The report showed, out of 24 sectors, employers across 12 sectors have improved their outlook (NAO) by 10% or more for the time period. The electrical and electronics sector tops the list with the highest NAO (92%) in the current HY. It reports a surge of 67% in NAO, the highest surge in the last six months by any sector, in comparison to the same period last year.

This is followed by aerospace and aviation (88%) and engineering and industrial (87%, up from 82%) which are driving talent demand in the form of apprentices. Also, the manufacturing sectors also continue to witness positive momentum, driven by the emphasis on PLI (Production Linked Incentive) Scheme to boost manufacturing in India.

“Over the past couple of years, there has been significant progress in the adoption of apprenticeships in India. As businesses see stronger return on investments, more employers are looking to leverage apprenticeships as the key source of talent,” said Sumit Kumar, Chief Business Officer, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship.

He added that small businesses are the most optimistic and report a doubling of NAO for Jul–Dec 2022, to 70% up from 32%. Additionally, gender neutrality in apprentice engagement is evident amongst employers across industries as well. Manufacturing exhibits the highest level of gender neutrality (51%), followed closely on its heels by the services industry (48%) as compared to the previous HY.”

Majority of the employers (62%) believe that increase in apprentices’ engagement will facilitate their business growth. A major proportion of these also believes that apprentice engagement will enable them with a more cost-efficient workforce and facilitate in creating a talent pool.

Kumar opined that a lot of the positive optimism in the ecosystem is also driven by the push from the New Education Policy 2020 and the increase in academia-industry partnerships to boost degree apprenticeships. “In fact, locations beyond Tier I have also seen an increase in apprentice engagement,” he said.

The report further showed that non-metro cities have witnessed a surge in the adoption of apprenticeship in HY, as compared to metro cities. Pune tops the NAO chart (80%) for the current HY, followed by Kochi & Coimbatore, each with NAO (77%).

However, Kumar warned, for India to scale to its true potential of 10 million apprentices in 10 years; “simplification, consolidation and formalisation is the need of the hour”.