The Board of Practical Training Eastern Region, under the ministry of education will hold an apprenticeship-cum-job fair at Durgapur on 23 November. The next fair will be held in Sunderbans on 27 December.During the fair, many companies come and from the applications filed by the students coming from all streams, including arts, and the selected ones are given training in the companies.
There are IT companies, startups, marketing firms and many others. The students, during their apprenticeship, get a minimum stipend of Rs 9,000 per month for one year and at the end of their term majority of them are absorbed in the industry. SM Ejaz Ahmad, director and Regional Central Apprenticeship Adviser said the fairs are held every month in different areas in the eastern region. “The fairs are getting popular among the students and their turn out in quite impressive.
Many companies come to join the fair and many students get apprenticeships,” Mr Ahmad said. In 2022, as many as 75,136 students had joined as apprentices in different establishments in eastern India. In 1961, The Apprentices Act was passed in the Parliament. In those days many engineering graduates and diploma holders used to join different companies as apprentices. The act was amended in 1973.
The Board of Practical Training opened its first regional office in the eastern region at the department of Metallurgy of Jadavpur University as the personal initiative of Professor Triguna Sen, vice chancellor of JU. Later the offices came up at Kanpur, Chennai and Mumbai. In 1974, 130 engineering graduates mostly from Jadavpur University joined different companies including Tata Steel as apprentices.
Now 3,620 companies have registered themselves and 30pc comply with the Act to accommodate apprentices. In 2014, the act was further amended to accommodate students coming from general courses. Few lakh students come out from engineering colleges, polytechnics and general colleges every year and they are all eligible for apprenticeship, maintained Mr Ahmad.