National Career Service (NCS)

What is the National Career Service?

National Career Service (NCS) is the employment and career services platform of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, operating at www.ncs.gov.in. According to the Ministry, NCS is "a one-stop solution for providing career related services including jobs from private and government sectors, information on online and offline job fairs, job search and matching, career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses" for all stakeholders across the country.

National Career Service is run by the Directorate General of Employment (DGE) under the Ministry of Labour and Employment from Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi. It is free for jobseekers and free for employers.

Two numbers show the current scale. As on 20 January 2026, more than 78.86 lakh jobseekers and more than 12.36 lakh employers had registered on the NCS portal during FY 2025-26, and more than 3.43 crore vacancies had been mobilised on the portal in the same financial year.

Key objectives

• Match jobseekers to vacancies in both the private and government sectors on a single national platform.
• Provide free career counselling and vocational guidance.
• Connect jobseekers to skill development and employability programmes.
• Deliver physical employment services through Model Career Centres for people who cannot use the portal on their own.

Main features

• 407 Model Career Centres approved across the country.
• 1,180+ approved career counsellors onboarded; 55 lakh+ career guidance sessions conducted.
• Integrated with the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) for skilling.
• Free online employability enhancement, digital skill enhancement and self-paced career skill programmes.
• Toll-free helpline 1514 in multiple Indian languages.

Who is eligible for the National Career Service?

You can register if:

• You are an Indian jobseeker of any age, education level or trade; NCS covers everyone from unskilled workers and local service providers to graduates and experienced professionals.
• You are an employer looking to post vacancies, including private companies, government departments and PSUs.
• You are a placement organisation, skill provider, counsellor or local service provider, NCS has separate registration types for these.
• You have a working mobile number for OTP verification.

There is no income ceiling, no caste criterion, no age bar and no fee.

You cannot apply for a cash benefit under NCS, because there is none. NCS is not a scheme that pays money, it does not give an unemployment allowance, stipend, training subsidy or loan. If you are looking for financial assistance, NCS is the wrong door; it exists to help you find work and to point you to training.

A person without a mobile number cannot complete OTP-verified online registration. That candidate is not excluded from the service — they should walk into a Model Career Centre, where staff will complete registration and counselling in person.

What documents are required for NCS registration?

How to apply for a job on NCS online

1. Open the official portal at www.ncs.gov.in.
2. Click Register and choose the Jobseeker account type.
3. Enter your name, date of birth, mobile number and email, and set a password.
4. Verify the OTP sent to your registered mobile number.
5. Complete your profile: education, skills, work experience, preferred job role, preferred location and expected salary. A complete profile is what drives job matching.
6. Use Job Search to filter vacancies by role, sector, location, salary and employer type, and apply to the ones that match.
7. Check the Job Fairs section for online and offline recruitment drives near you, and register for the ones you want to attend.
8. Book a career counselling session with an approved counsellor if you need guidance on which role or course to target.

How to register at a Model Career Centre offline

1. Locate the nearest Model Career Centre. The government has approved 407 MCCs, set up in collaboration with states and institutions.
2. Carry your Aadhaar card, educational certificates and mobile phone.
3. Ask the centre staff to complete your NCS jobseeker registration and build your profile.
4. Attend the counselling, orientation or workshop sessions the centre runs as part of its outreach activities.
5. Register for the job fairs the MCC organises with local employers.

What services does NCS provide?

• Job search and matching across private sector, government sector and local service provider work.
• Career counselling and vocational guidance through approved counsellors.
• Job fairs, online and offline, organised nationally and by Model Career Centres.
• Employability enhancement programmes, digital skill enhancement programmes and a self-paced career skill programme, all offered free through the portal.
• Skill course information and a direct link to Skill India Digital Hub training.
• Local service provider listings so that plumbers, drivers, electricians and similar workers can be found by people who need them.

How is NCS connected to Skill India?

The NCS portal is integrated with the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH), the Ministry of Skill Development's digital public infrastructure for skilling. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, this integration lets skilled jobseekers on SIDH access NCS benefits, and lets NCS jobseekers take up the skilling services offered on SIDH.

SIDH itself is integrated with DigiLocker, e-Shram, UIDAI and PFMS, so a candidate's certificates and identity records carry across platforms rather than being re-entered each time.

How to keep your NCS profile working for you

• Complete every profile field. Matching is driven by role, skill, location and experience data; a half-filled profile surfaces in fewer searches.
• Update your preferred location. Vacancy density varies sharply by state; Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat carried the largest employer bases in the Ministry's July 2025 state-wise data.
• Re-check job fair listings weekly, since offline drives are announced at short notice by Model Career Centres.
• Use the free employability programmes before applying widely, the digital and career skill modules are designed for exactly the entry-level gaps employers screen on.
• Never pay anyone for an NCS registration, a job offer or an interview call. NCS services are free.

Help and grievance redressal

• Toll-free helpline: 1514, available Tuesday to Sunday, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, in Hindi, English, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.
• Grievance email: support.ncs@gov.in, quoting your Case ID in the subject line.
• Portal feedback: feedback.dget@nic.in.
• Postal address: Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001.
• Model Career Centre nearest to you, for in-person help.

National Career Service is a free government service. No fee is payable for registration, job matching, counselling or any employability programme on ncs.gov.in, and no NCS official will ask you for money or for your OTP.