National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS-2)

What is the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS-2)?

The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme-2 (NAPS-2) is a Central Sector scheme, funded 100% by the Government of India, run by the Apprenticeship Training Division of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). NAPS-2 guidelines were issued on 25 August 2023 and superseded every earlier version of NAPS, which had itself been launched on 19 August 2016.

NAPS-2 exists to make apprenticeship affordable for employers and worthwhile for young people. Under the Apprentices Act, 1961, an establishment that engages an apprentice must pay a stipend at rates prescribed by the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992. NAPS-2 lets the government carry part of that cost: the Government of India pays 25% of the stipend, capped at Rs 1,500 per apprentice per month, and the establishment pays at least the remaining 75%.

NAPS-2 is one of three sub-components of the umbrella Central Sector scheme Skill India Programme, alongside Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 and the Jan Shikshan Sansthan scheme. According to the NAPS-2 guidelines, Rs 1,942 crore was allocated to NAPS-2 for four years, FY 2022-23 to FY 2025-26, with a target of enrolling 46 lakh apprentices in that period.

Key features

• Government share paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the apprentice's own bank account through PFMS and the Aadhaar Payment Bridge, not reimbursed to the employer as under the older NAPS.
• Entire lifecycle; registration, course creation, contract, stipend; is run online on the apprenticeship portal at apprenticeshipindia.gov.in.
• Training is offered in Designated Trades, notified in the Gazette, and Optional Trades, decided by the employer.
• No reimbursement of basic training cost under NAPS-2; basic training is embedded inside the apprenticeship duration.

Who is eligible for NAPS-2?

Candidates can apply if:

• They are at least 14 years old, or 18 years old for designated trades in hazardous industries, as required by Section 3(a) of the Apprentices Act, 1961.
• They are not more than 35 years old at the time of registration on the portal, which is the cut-off for the government's partial stipend support.
• They hold the educational qualification the trade requires, from Class 5 pass through to a degree.
• They have an Aadhaar number updated on the portal and completed e-KYC. An establishment cannot issue a contract to a candidate who has not done this.

Establishments can participate if:

• They are a private industry, business or organisation covered by the Apprentices Act, 1961 and registered on the apprenticeship portal.
• They pay at least 75% of the prescribed minimum stipend directly to the apprentice's bank account.
• They opt in, contract by contract, to take the NAPS-2 financial benefit. A contract where the employer opts in is a DBT contract; one where it opts out is a non-NAPS-2 contract with no government share.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible for the stipend support:

• Central and state government departments cannot apply for stipend support, and neither can central or state public sector undertakings and enterprises, including public sector banks. They may still engage apprentices, but at their own cost.
• Candidates above 35 years at registration are not eligible for the government's 25% share.
• Courses that are not aligned to the National Skills Qualifications Framework do not attract partial stipend support, even though NSQF alignment is otherwise not mandatory under NAPS-2.
• Establishments blacklisted for misusing the scheme or for not training as required by the Apprentices Act, 1961 are barred from further participation.

Large private organisations are separately encouraged to join a "Give It Up Campaign" and voluntarily forego the government's stipend share.

How much stipend does an apprentice get?

Two numbers matter. The first is the minimum stipend the employer owes you under Rule 11 of the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992. The second is the government's 25% share within that, capped at Rs 1,500 a month.

Because the cap bites at a stipend of Rs 6,000, every apprentice paid Rs 6,000 or more receives exactly Rs 1,500 a month from the government. A Class 5 to Class 9 pass-out on the Rs 5,000 minimum receives Rs 1,250. Any revision to these rates requires the approval of the Central Apprenticeship Council and a Gazette notification.

How to apply for NAPS-2 as a candidate

1. Open the apprenticeship portal at apprenticeshipindia.gov.in and choose the Candidate registration option.
2. Register with your mobile number and email, then set a password and sign in to your candidate dashboard.
3. Complete your profile, name, date of birth, educational qualification, preferred trade, sector and location.
4. Update your Aadhaar number and complete e-KYC on the portal. No establishment can issue you a contract until this is done.
5. Enter your bank account details, and make sure the account is Aadhaar-seeded, because DBT runs through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge.
6. Search the posted apprenticeship opportunities by trade, sector, state and district, and apply to the ones that match your qualification.
7. Once an establishment selects you, accept the apprenticeship contract generated on the portal. Check that the trade, duration and stipend match what you were offered.
8. Track your stipend credits in the DBT section of your dashboard each month.

How an establishment registers and claims under NAPS-2

1. Register the establishment on apprenticeshipindia.gov.in, giving registration and PAN details, and get the establishment ID approved.
2. Create or select the apprenticeship courses you will offer, choosing Designated Trades from the Gazette list or defining Optional Trades.
3. Post apprenticeship vacancies, shortlist candidates from the portal, and generate a contract for each selected apprentice.
4. At contract creation, choose whether to avail the NAPS-2 financial benefit. Choosing yes makes it a DBT contract; you cannot claim the government share on a contract created as non-DBT.
5. Pay your share of the stipend — at least 75%; into the apprentice's bank account by the 10th of the following month, as Rule 11(3) requires.
6. Confirm the payment on the portal. The government's 25% share is then initiated by DBT within 72 working hours.

How do I check my NAPS-2 stipend status?

Sign in to your candidate dashboard on apprenticeshipindia.gov.in and open the stipend or DBT section, which shows month by month whether the establishment has confirmed its share and whether the government's DBT has been released. If the employer's share is not marked paid, the government share will not move at all, so that is the first thing to check.

Establishments track the same data from their own dashboard, contract by contract, which is where a mismatch in bank details usually shows up first.

Why do NAPS-2 stipend payments fail?

• e-KYC not completed on the portal, which blocks the contract itself.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the Aadhaar Payment Bridge cannot route the DBT.
• Employer has not paid or not confirmed its 75% share, which is the trigger condition for the government transfer.
• Contract created as non-DBT, meaning the establishment opted out of the financial benefit for that apprentice.
• Candidate registered above 35 years, which makes the contract ineligible for stipend support.
• Employer is a government department or PSU, which is excluded from stipend support entirely.
• Course is not NSQF-aligned, which removes eligibility for the partial stipend even where the apprenticeship itself is valid.

Most of these are fixed on the portal itself. Bank seeding is fixed at your bank branch, and an incorrect contract type usually has to be raised with the establishment before the Apprenticeship Adviser can act.

What is the current status of NAPS-2 in 2026?

NAPS-2 guidelines fix a sunset date of 31 March 2026, matching the approved Skill India Programme period of FY 2022-23 to FY 2025-26 with its Rs 8,800 crore outlay, of which Rs 1,942 crore was for PM-NAPS. Apprenticeship promotion has continued into FY 2026-27 under the PM-NAPS name, and the apprenticeship portal continues to register candidates and generate contracts. MSDE has also extended its special intervention for the North-Eastern Region under PM-NAPS for FY 2026-27, with an outlay of Rs 57.58 crore and a target of 30,000 apprentices, implemented through the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, Guwahati.

A fresh multi-year outlay and revised guidelines beyond FY 2025-26 have not been published on the MSDE site at the time of this fact check. Employers planning a large intake should confirm the applicable guideline version with their State Apprenticeship Adviser before signing contracts, rather than assume the NAPS-2 terms continue unchanged.

Where do I complain if the NAPS-2 stipend is not paid?

• Query redressal tool on the apprenticeship portal, the first route for apprentices, establishments and third-party aggregators, with real-time tracking of the complaint.
• NAPS helpline call centre, reachable through the contact page on apprenticeshipindia.gov.in.
• Escalation matrix, unresolved complaints move up to the State Apprenticeship Adviser, then to the Regional Directorates of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Joint Apprenticeship Advisers and the Central Apprenticeship Adviser.

Registration is free at every stage. Establishments and third-party aggregators found misusing the scheme, or not conducting training as required by the Apprentices Act, 1961, are blacklisted and face action under the extant law.

Common reasons for rejection

The page above already explains why a confirmed NAPS-2 contract can fail to receive its DBT stipend. The reasons below cover an earlier stage: why a candidate's registration, a contract, or an establishment's own registration gets turned back on the apprenticeship portal before a contract is even generated.

1. Candidate profile rejected at the qualification-mapping stage. Each trade on the portal is mapped to a specific minimum qualification, from Class 5 pass to a degree. If a candidate applies to a trade above their recorded qualification, or selects a designated trade meant for ITI pass-outs without holding an ITI certificate, the establishment cannot generate a contract against that application. Fix: check the qualification the trade listing asks for before applying, and make sure the certificate uploaded on the portal matches the qualification selected in the profile, not just the highest certificate the candidate holds.

2. Contract stuck for want of Apprenticeship Adviser approval. A contract generated on the portal is not automatically valid; it needs approval from the Joint Apprenticeship Adviser or State Apprenticeship Adviser for that jurisdiction. Contracts sit pending, and sometimes get returned for correction, when the trade code, duration, or stipend slab entered does not match the Gazette notification for that Designated Trade. Fix: the establishment should cross-check the trade code and stipend slab against the current Designated Trades list before submitting the contract for approval, rather than after it is returned.

3. Establishment registration rejected for PAN or sector mismatch. An establishment's registration on the portal is checked against its PAN and the sector or industry it declares. A mismatch, such as registering under a sector the establishment's PAN records do not support, or an incomplete PAN entry, holds up establishment approval and blocks every contract under it. Fix: the establishment should register with the exact legal name and PAN used in its statutory filings, and pick the sector that matches its actual line of business, before posting any vacancy.

4. Duplicate or conflicting active contract for the same candidate. The portal does not allow a candidate to hold two active apprenticeship contracts at the same time. An application is rejected if the candidate's Aadhaar is already linked to a live contract elsewhere, even one the candidate has stopped attending informally. Fix: a candidate leaving one apprenticeship must have that earlier contract formally closed or terminated on the portal before a new establishment can register a fresh one against the same Aadhaar.

5. Workforce size makes the establishment ineligible to onboard. Under the Apprentices Act, 1961, an establishment with 3 or fewer workers cannot engage apprentices at all, engagement is optional for 4 to 29 workers, and mandatory in a prescribed band for 30 or more. An establishment below the threshold has its apprentice-engagement request rejected regardless of how the contract is filled in. Fix: confirm the establishment's total workforce count before attempting to register apprentices; this is a threshold issue that no portal correction can work around.

6. Aadhaar e-KYC incomplete or mismatched at the time of contract creation. Contract creation itself is blocked, not merely delayed, if the candidate's Aadhaar e-KYC on the portal has not been completed, or if the name or date of birth in the Aadhaar record does not match what was entered during registration. Fix: complete e-KYC as the very first step after registering, and correct any name or date-of-birth mismatch through the Aadhaar update process before asking an establishment to generate a contract.