The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought early adoption of ‘Earn while you learn' scheme in Karnataka to address skills shortage in the manufacturing sector.

CII members, interacting with the Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Mr Murugesh R. Nirani, at the CII Southern Regional Council meeting, urged the state government to bring suitable amendments to various sections of the Labour Acts and the Apprentices Act.

Mr B. Santhanam, Deputy Chairman, CII- Southern Regional Council, said already the scheme is successfully working in Maharashtra and a few northern states. Tamil Nadu is exploring to implement it shortly and why not Karnataka also explore it as it benefits manufacturing sector.

The CII-Karnataka has submitted a detailed proposal to the State Chief Secretary in March and has apprised him of the benefits. Mr K. Jothiramalingam, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Industries Department, speaking on the occasion said the state government already has taken few positive steps to adopt the scheme. “The state and central governments, through a public-private partnership (PPP) mode, has partnered with German agency – GIZ to set up skill development centres in Gulbarga and Bangalore,” he added. “The CII proposal - we will look into it and try to bring in amendments early in time for the Global Investors Meet (GIM) in June,” he further added.

Scheme

‘Earn while you learn' scheme allows students over 18 years of age to be apprenticed with manufacturing companies for four years. In this scheme the students work for four days and attend class for two days, at the end fourth year, he gets a diploma and is industry ready.

Mr S. Chandrashekar, former CII-Karnataka Chairman, said this is beneficial for students.

Under this scheme, it provides access to them seeking technical education.

The company sponsoring the student pays the fees, a monthly stipend and also for the uniform, shoes, insurance cover.

>anil.u@thehindu.co.in

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