Banks to hire young graduates as apprentices in a month; pay Rs 5k stipend

Banks are mulling to hire graduates under 25 years of age as apprentices in a month, a top industry official said on Friday.

Lenders will be paying a stipend of Rs 5,000 a month to such candidates who will get trained on a specialized skill set during the stint, industry lobby grouping Indian Banks Association's chief executive Sunil Mehta told PTI.

The move follows a budget announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, under which the government is targeting to provide internships at top-500 companies for up to 1 crore youth over the next five years.

Explaining the banks' role in implementing the scheme, Mehta said, "There are a lot of areas where we don't need any skilled manpower for example marketing, recoveries. We can give them training in those areas and they can create employment for themselves."

The candidates applying for apprentice should be a graduate between 21-25 years of age, should not be a taxpayer and must not possess a degree from top institutions like IIT or IIM, Mehta said.

Mehta also hinted that such apprentices, who can be hired for up to 12 months, will also be hired in other areas like working as business correspondents to take the banking services to the last mile.

Such candidates will not "vanish" after their stints at banks, Mehta said, adding that there is also a possibility of some of them getting absorbed as employees.

The IBA held a meeting with the Secretary of Ministry of Corporate Affairs regarding the implementation of the scheme on Thursday, Mehta said, and added that it can get implemented within a month.

He, however, did not share the total number of interns or apprentices that the banks will be hiring but added that all banks will be participating in the initiative.

There will also be government support for the implementation of the scheme, he said.