Labour Skill Training Scheme (MPBOCWWB)

What is the Labour Skill Training Scheme?

The Labour Skill Training Scheme is a welfare scheme run by the Madhya Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board. The Madhya Pradesh Bhavan Evam Anya Sanniraman Karmakar Kalyan Mandal, under the state Labour Department. The scheme gives free trade training to registered construction workers so that a worker who is being paid at the unskilled minimum wage rate can move up to the skilled or highly skilled rate.

The Board is a statutory body constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. It is funded from the cess of 1 per cent of construction cost levied under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996. Skill training is one of the standard welfare purposes for which that fund is spent, alongside pension, education, maternity and accident benefits.

The reasoning behind the scheme is straightforward. Minimum wages in Madhya Pradesh are notified separately for unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled categories. A mason who can prove a skill grade earns materially more per day than a helper doing the same hours. Training plus a certificate is the cheapest way for the state to raise a construction worker's lifetime earnings.

Who is eligible for the skill training scheme?

You can enrol if:

• You hold a live registration card as a building or other construction worker with the Madhya Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.
• You are between 18 and 60 years of age. The beneficiary age window under Section 12 of the 1996 Act.
• You completed at least 90 days of construction work in the preceding twelve months, the statutory condition for beneficiary registration.
• You are a resident of Madhya Pradesh and can produce a domicile, Samagra ID or voter ID.
• You can attend the full batch. Attendance is usually captured biometrically and short attendance disqualifies a trainee from certification.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not registered with the Board, or your registration has lapsed because the annual contribution was not paid.
• You are above 60, at which age beneficiary status under the Act ends.
• You work in a sector outside the definition of building and other construction work in the 1996 Act, for example a factory worker, who is covered instead by the Madhya Pradesh Labour Welfare Board.
• You have already completed the same trade course under the Board. Repeat training in the same trade is not the purpose of the fund; a different trade or an advanced level is normally allowed.

Family members of a registered worker cannot apply in the worker's place. Unlike the Board's education schemes, skill training is for the registered worker personally.

What documents are required?

How to apply for skill training

1. Confirm your registration is live. Take your construction worker registration card to the district labour office (Shram Padadhikari Karyalaya) and check that the annual contribution is paid. Renew it on the spot if it has lapsed.
2. Ask which trades and batches are running in your district this year. The Board conducts training through empanelled centres and ITIs, and the trade list changes from year to year and district to district.
3. Fill the enrolment form at the district labour office or directly at the empanelled training centre, attaching your registration card, Aadhaar, residence proof and bank passbook copy.
4. Get an acknowledgement with your batch name and start date. Do not pay any fee — the course is free for registered workers.
5. Attend the full batch and sit the end-of-course assessment. Attendance is normally recorded by biometric or Aadhaar-based punch-in.
6. Collect your skill certificate and keep a photocopy. Show it to your contractor to claim the skilled-category minimum wage rate.

What does a trainee actually get?

• Free training in a construction trade, paid for from the cess fund.
• A skill certificate on successful completion and assessment.
• A stipend or travel allowance for days attended, where the Board has notified one. The rate is set by Board resolution and revised periodically: no current Madhya Pradesh figure could be verified for this guide, so confirm it locally before you enrol.
• A toolkit, in some trades and some years, where the Board's sanction covers it. The Board also runs a separate tool and equipment purchase subsidy scheme for registered workers.

Why enrolments get rejected

• Lapsed registration with the Welfare Board, by far the most common reason.
• Age outside 18–60, which puts the worker outside beneficiary status.
• The 90-day work condition not met or not evidenced by the employer or Gram Panchayat.
• Batch already full. Batches have fixed seats; a rejected worker should ask to be listed for the next batch rather than reapply from scratch.
• Short attendance during the course, which blocks certification even after enrolment.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, which stops the stipend even though the training itself proceeds.

Where to get help

• Madhya Pradesh Labour Department worker helpline: 18002338888
• Madhya Pradesh CM Helpline: 181
• District labour office (Shram Padadhikari), for registration, renewal and batch enrolment
• Labour Department portal: labour.mp.gov.in

Training under this scheme is free. No training centre, contractor or agent may charge a registered construction worker for a seat, and any demand for money should be reported to the district labour officer.