There has been a year-on-year increase of more than 250% in apprentice headcount in these sectors in 2023, according to the report. Despite a drop in headcount and fresher intake due to global tensions, apprentice hiring has been on the upswing month-on-month as the industry prioritises apprenticeship engagement to lower the cost of its workforce, create a talent pool and cultivate staff loyalty and retention.
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“Apprentice hiring has picked up substantially in the past year across the IT segment, with newer roles emerging that did not perhaps exist a year ago. This is a trend observed across both metro and tier-2 cities,” Girija S, vice president, Quess Corp, said in a statement. “Apprentice hiring in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) is also flourishing with the expansion of NBFCs (non-banking finance companies). However, the scope for apprentice skilling and job creation in IT/BFSI sectors is unprecedented, and we expect the creation of approximately 5 million jobs by 2025.”
BFSI and IT/ITeS were the top industries employing apprentices in the past year, according to the report, considering the high return on investment (ROI) amid ongoing uncertainties and global turmoil. About 75% of apprentices engaged in BFSI and IT sectors complete training and are considered for full-time employment, much higher than in other industries.
Within the IT/ITeS industry, key roles in demand from recruiters include IT support, BPO executive, voice/data entry operator and associate CRM. Roles such as embedded systems engineer/design engineer are also in high demand, along with DevOps engineer, data engineer, and blockchain developers. Android/IOS developers, AR-VR technicians, cybersecurity engineers and Unity 3D developers are a few additional roles that have seen significant traction from recruiters in 2023.
In BFSI, roles such as microfinance, credit procurement, debt recovery and back-office executives are popular.Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Pune have emerged as key cities hiring apprentices. Other metros such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-National Capital Region, Mumbai and Ahmedabad also saw a considerable increase in apprentice hiring.Currently, more than 900,000 youths who are apprentices are in the age group of 23-26 years. As per the Quess report, employers in the IT/ITES sectors are likely to pay Rs 11,000-75,000 per month to apprentices aged 20-24 years. However, the stipend pay for other sectors differs depending on educational qualifications.
In the current scenario of apprentice hiring, registration of women candidates has seen nearly a sevenfold increase in the past five years, to about 148,000 in 2022-23 from 22,427 in 2018-19.
The report is based on Quess Corp’s operations data, which maps demand and supply in the talent ecosystem for apprentice hiring.