India raises apprenticeship target 40% to 600,000 students

Imagine you finish school or college but have never done the actual job.

An apprenticeship is like a practice job where companies teach you real skills while you work and learn.

The government of India runs a big programme called NATS to arrange these practice jobs for students.

This year, the government decided to make the programme much bigger, aiming for 600,000 students instead of 428,000.

That is 40% more students, and it has set aside ₹1,250 crore to pay for it.

The government also wants companies to grade their apprentices, and at least 40% of them should get a 'good' rating or better.

It is doing this because many young people cannot find jobs, and there were big student protests about it.

Some experts say the idea is good, but we need to check if these programmes actually help young people find real jobs.

A government report found that only about half of the students who signed up for a similar scheme actually got an apprenticeship.

So the challenge is making sure companies really hire and keep these young workers.