New upgradation plan for ITI will enhance employability and seat utilization

The ministry of entrepreneurship and skill development has put forth a plan to upgrade 1,000 government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in a hub-and-spoke pattern in the next five years. For this, 200 state-of-the-art Hub and 800 Spoke ITIs shall be established.

The hubs will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories, innovation hubs, and trainer rooms under the ₹60,000 crore National Scheme for ITI Upgradation. They will introduce four new courses and upgrade 10 current ones. Spokes will implement two new courses and improve the curriculum of eight courses according to industry requirements.

India has 3,316 government and 11,299 private ITIs. The new scheme will have a single Hub ITI to serve a maximum of four Spoke ITIs, and all the upgraded institutions will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure, machinery, and equipment.

The programme was unveiled during the 2024-25 Budget. The Union Cabinet approved it in May 2025 and also the establishment of five National Centres of Excellence for skilling to enhance overall quality and relevance of vocational training.

The IITs programme is being conducted with the assistance of industry when they are struggling with vacant seats and lackluster student placements. The authorities said the enhanced training and curriculum will enhance employability based on the requirements of the market. Majority of ITI principals and students remain skeptical about its imposition as a result of the unimpressive success of similar programs in the past.

ITI ecosystem in India

ITIs were formed in 1950 for imparting a trained manpower base to the local industries through six-month to two-year technical training and skill courses in electrical, mechanical, and automobile industries. They have around 2.25 million seats, but still, vacancies are high, and only just over 1.4 million trainees (14+ age group) are enrolled.

Seat availability had fallen sharply over the last three years of study (2022–25) as a result of de-affiliation of 449,000 seats in courses with zero enrolment for two successive years. This resulting higher usage of seats from 47.1% in 2022 to 64.6% in 2024, denoting better efficiency but lower overall training capacity.

The de-affiliation of the ITI seats was a pending long decision in the interest of increasing the performance of ITIs as well as bringing transparency, accountability, and quality into the skilling landscape….Any unit or trade with no admissions for two consecutive years is liable to be de-affiliated, removed from the seat matrix, and the institute." But if the institute wants to become re-affiliated, it can do so by availing itself of the procedure set," said the Directorate General of Training (DGT) in a response to HT's queries.

The DGT, which regulates and standardises ITIs, added the de-affiliation of seats "opens the door for a more efficient, transparent, and future-ready ITI ecosystem."

A Bihar ITI principal explained that students entering ITIs are generally expecting Group C and D railway jobs, but since vacancies are shrinking and few graduates get even ₹20,000 per month, the institutions are less worth the while.

ITI improvement schemes

Such projects as the Vocational Training Improvement Project in 2007 were launched in the past two decades for the modernization of ITIs by improving infrastructure, consolidating industry linkage, and introducing performance-linked funding. They laid the foundations for reforms but with uneven pace. Private sector participation was limited, and long-term sustainability was weak, leaving the majority of ITIs with chronic infrastructure and quality issues.

The previous ITI upgradation scheme, initiated in 2014 at an expenditure of ₹238.08 crore, proposed upgrading some of the ITIs as model institutions. As of the deadline in March 2024, ₹192.65 crore had been utilized, and only 19 of the planned 35 ITIs had been fully upgradated, with the rate of completion being a paltry 54% in 10 years. The DGT attributed the shortage to "slow spending of funds and lag on the part of states in forwarding utilization certificates."

 

Placements by ITIs remain dismal. According to a 2023 NITI Aayog report, merely 36% of sanctioned instructor posts were filled, a mere 15% of 95,000 instructors were trained as per norms, and the placement was at less than 0.1% (405 placed against 41.4 million trained) even as an average public outlay of approximately ₹10,000 crore per annum was made on 3,500 government ITIs at a cost of ₹1.32 lakh per student.

The DGT stated above governs placements and focused on apprenticeships, absorption in industry, and self-employment.

Former students and continuing ITI students cite inadequate instructors and inadequate infrastructure.

Industry players claim there are no industry-ready skills among graduates.

Sahil Maurya, a student of electrical trade in a private ITI in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, did not go to classes frequently in the second year due to "poor training facilities" and is now attempting to prepare for railway jobs as there are fewer opportunities.

A student in a government ITI in Sonipat, Haryana said he relies on external faculty as their teachers are poorly trained.

Rampal Maurya, who works as an assistant general manager in a Ghaziabad factory, mentioned that ITI graduates need months of retraining despite them having basic training. "Many leave the company on the grounds of lower pay. We cannot provide them with more than ₹20,000 when they are half-trained," he stated.

Nikita Bengani, executive at Future Right Skills Network, a non-profit organisation that partners with the government to bridge gaps in the ITI skilling space, blamed low intake and placements on structural and market fundamentals. "ITIs are generally situated away from industrial clusters. Local demand is not being met by courses, and though some industries like ITI graduates, many others still find them not adequately trained.". Aspirations for high-prestige, high-salary jobs also widen the gap, with nearly all graduates rejecting offers of low salaries.

MSDE secretary Rajit Punhani explained to an interactive session that they aim to position ITIs as centers of innovation, employability, and entrepreneurship through the Hub-and-Spoke model, industry-governance, and globally benchmarked training.

The implementation process would begin with ITI cluster identification via industry consultation, after which industry partner onboarding would occur through Expressions of Interest. Shortlisted industry partners would then enter into Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with officials of the Union and state governments to operate each cluster. The SPVs would prepare cluster-level Strategic Investment Plans with focus on training that is industry-relevant, new-age courses, and outcome-based funding.

The five-year plan will first be rolled out on a pilot basis to test the SPV-led model, allow for course correction, and be ready for successful implementation elsewhere in the country.

Aakash Sethi, CEO of the Quest Alliance, which works towards empowering young people with 21st-century skills, informed that corporations like Reliance, Adani, and Mahindra will co-fund, co-design training, curriculum, and governance, converting ITIs into an industry-managed, government-owned model. "The hub-and-spoke system will utilize resources and amplify impact, while new trades like EV maintenance, renewable energy, and AI production are being launched in direct consultation with hiring industries to build transparent job pathways," he further said.

 

Sethi believed that the scheme is going to be slowed by weak state capacity, unequal industry participation (especially by MSMEs) and a lack of practitioner inputs. "Its success also depends on strong data systems tracking performance and linking outcomes to positive incentives, driving reform and peer learning.".