• The Minister for Human Resources Development has launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS).

About SHREYAS:

• SHREYAS is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily non-technical, with a view to introduce employable skills into their learning, promote apprenticeship as integral to education and also amalgamate employment facilitating efforts of the Government into the education system so that clear pathways towards employment opportunities are available to students during and after their graduation.
• This 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.
• SHREYAS portal will enable educational institutions and industry to log in and provide their respective demand and supply of apprenticeship. The matching of students with apprenticeship avenues will take place as per pre-specified eligibility criteria. The State Governments are expected to play a major role in securing apprenticeship opportunities, apart from the Sector Skill Councils, so that general degree students passing out in April 2019, gain the option of industry & service sector apprenticeship. Further, the SSCs have identified more than 100 NSQF aligned Job roles/courses in the sectors ofIT, Retail, Logistics, Tourism, Healthcare, BFSI, Electronics, Media, Life Sciences and Management, which the exiting graduates can take up under Apprenticeship program. These courses will be available to them from Academic year April-May, 2019. More than 40 higher educational institutions have already been tied up for taking up embedded apprenticeship courses.

Objectives of SHREYAS

• To improve employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning process of the higher education system
• To forge a close functionallink  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 student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government

Operation of the Scheme

• The primary scheme will be operated in conjunction with National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) which provides for placing of apprentices upto 10% of the total work force in every business/industry.  The scheme will be 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.  More sectors would be added over time with emerging apprenticeship demand and curriculum adjustments.