A day after the announcement of the radical Agnipath scheme of recruitment in the armed forces, ministries concerned have said they recognising in-service training received by Agniveers as credits for graduation and offering post-service employment opportunities.

The Home Ministry will give preference to Agniveers in recruitment by the central armed police forces and Assam Rifles. Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted on Wednesday while welcoming the decision to introduce the Agnipath scheme through which youth will be inducted into the armed forces for four years on attractive salary packages. The Minister made it clear that Agniveers who complete their four years of service will only be eligible for preference in jobs in CAPFs and Assam Rifles. The recruitment between the ages of 17.5 and 21 years will be for non-officer cadres, the defence ministry announced on Tuesday.

The Home Ministry, said sources, will review the recruitment process in the CAPFs, such as BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, and NSG, and Assam Rifles, to accommodate the Agniveers.

Skill-based degree

In order to equip Agniveers for various job roles in the civilian sector, the Ministry of Education will launch a special three-year skill-based bachelor’s degree programme for serving defence personnel that will recognise the skills training received by them during their tenure in the defence establishments, said the ministry in a statement.

This programme, aligned with UGC norms and the new National Education Policy 2020, has provision for multiple exit points – Undergraduate Certificate on successful completion of the first year courses; Undergraduate Diploma on successful completion of the first and second year courses; and Degree on successful completion of all the courses in a three-year time frame.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) held a meeting with all the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)-Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone-Idea-and identified that Agniveers can be employed in areas including optical fibre maintenance, air conditioning equipment, provision of infrastructure, especially last mile connectivity, fibre-to-home (FTTH), and for customer interface.