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About 72 per cent Indian employers are keen to hire apprentices this fiscal year, according to a new report on Tuesday.

The Apprenticeship Outlook Report for H1 (January to June 2022) from TeamLease Skills University in Gujarat's Vadodara is an in-depth analysis of apprentice appointment trends across 18 sectors and 14 cities.

The report stated that net apprenticeship outlook (NAO) has soared to 56 per cent for the current half year - an increase of 11 per cent over the previous half year.

While there is positive sentiment for apprentices is across sectors, employers across 10 sectors engineering (82 per cent), automobiles and ancillaries (74 per cent), and retail (70 per cent) have a more positive outlook to appoint apprentices.

Further, the report highlights that Chennai (75 per cent), followed by Ahmedabad (72 per cent) and Delhi (70 per cent) employers are planning to appoint more apprentices. The top profiles included data analytics executives (23 per cent), production apprentices (20 per cent) and maintenance technician-electrical (20 per cent).

"When it comes to the adoption of apprenticeships in India, the last five years have been very rewarding. Employer sentiment has drastically improved on account of awareness and the reforms in the apprenticeship system, with more employers coming to the forefront and engaging more apprentices," said Sumit Kumar, Vice President - NETAP, in a statement.

He added that India has the potential to reach 10 million apprentices in the coming decade, if necessary actions are undertaken.

He suggested creating a framework for faster adoption and implementation of apprenticeships programmes to further scale apprenticeships in India.

"A tripartite association between academic, industry and youth will go a long way in boosting these programmes. The recently launched degree embedded programmes by UGC are the game changer in education which will address the youth employability, solve skill crisis and achieve the gross enrollment ratio objective," Kumar said.

The report surveyed 871 employers to capture the appointment sentiment for the period HY (January to June) 2022.