The Apprentices Act, 1961 was not subsumed into the Labour Codes — it stands on its own, with its own penalties. It is also the one labour statute that pays you back: half the stipend for graduate and technician apprentices is borne by the Government. This page sets out how to get that, what you need on file, and which of it we draft for you.
Minimum monthly stipend under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme, revised with effect from 1 April 2026. The Government of India bears 50% of the minimum prescribed rate, disbursed by Direct Benefit Transfer through the regional Board of Apprenticeship Training.
The stipend is only part of it. A regular hire at the same wage carries employer provident fund, State insurance, Labour Welfare Fund, statutory bonus and gratuity on top of the wage. An apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act carries none of them. Enter the wage you would otherwise have paid and the difference is set out below, head by head.
Graduate, degree and technician apprentices go through NATS at nats.education.gov.in, administered by the Ministry of Education through the Board of Apprenticeship Training. Trade apprentices go through NAPS at apprenticeshipindia.gov.in, under the Ministry of Skill Development.
These are different ministries and different portals. A graduate apprentice registered on the NAPS portal is in the wrong scheme and the 50% share is simply lost — not delayed, lost.
The Board sanctions the number and category of apprentices your establishment may engage, against your facilities and supervisory strength. Apply before you recruit, not after — an apprentice engaged outside a sanctioned slot is difficult to regularise.
Signing is not enough. The contract of apprenticeship must be registered on the portal. This is the single most common and most expensive failure in this whole area: an apprentice properly recruited, properly trained and properly paid, whose contract was never registered. The training then counts for nothing — no compliance credit, no reimbursement, and the shortfall penalty keeps running as though you had engaged nobody.
Cash breaks the evidence trail and disqualifies the claim even where the money genuinely reached the apprentice. Pay by transfer, keep the advice, and keep the apprentice's bank and Aadhaar details seeded — DBT fails silently on unseeded accounts.
Module by module, signed off. This is the document that distinguishes a genuine apprenticeship from using a trainee as inexpensive labour, and it is the first thing an Apprenticeship Adviser asks to see. It is also the record that makes a claim defensible if it is ever questioned.
Returns of apprentices engaged, under training and completed, to the Apprenticeship Adviser and through the portal. Claims run on the scheme's own cycle and a late claim is generally not revived, so this is a diary item, not a year-end item.
The certificate is the apprentice's entire return on the arrangement. Note also that completing an apprenticeship creates no obligation to employ — a misconception that stops many employers engaging apprentices at all.
Everything an Apprenticeship Adviser can call for. Marked by whether we generate it, whether it is generated on the government portal, or whether it has to come from you.
The stipend share is the visible benefit. These are the ones most establishments never count.
Apprentices engaged under the Act sit outside the definition of employee for provident fund and State insurance, so there is no employer contribution on them. On a regular hire the employer's share is roughly 12% plus 3.25% of wages — that is saved outright. Confirm the position for each apprentice rather than assuming it, because it turns on the engagement being genuinely under the Act.
The same exclusion means no statutory bonus and no gratuity liability building up against an apprentice. Against the new one-year gratuity rule for fixed-term staff under the Social Security Code, that difference has grown materially.
Apprenticeship compliance is increasingly asked for in tenders, in licence renewals and by large customers auditing their supply chain. Being able to produce a clean status is worth more than the stipend saving on a single contract.
Section 22 creates no right to employment on completion. You get a year or more to assess someone at half the stipend cost, with a free hand at the end — and if you do keep them, you have skipped the entire cost and risk of an untested hire.
Because the revision took effect from 1 April 2026 but circulated in May, many establishments are sitting on an underpayment. Finding that now costs you arrears; finding it at an inspection costs you arrears plus a penalty that grows per apprentice per month.
The obligation is a ratio of total strength, not an event — so nothing triggers it, and exposure accrues quietly for years. Establishments usually discover it at the worst possible moment. Counting it once, properly, is the cheapest thing on this page.