ITI Apprenticeship Stipend 2026: What the Rules Actually Say

The minimum stipend for an ITI pass apprentice is ₹9,600 a month. It was set by the Apprenticeship (Amendment) Rules, 2025, in force from 11 September 2025, and it replaced the ₹7,000 that had applied since 2019. Below: the full table from the Gazette, the second-year increase, who pays which part, the rules on leave and a second apprenticeship, and how to write the apprenticeship on your resume once it ends.

The minimum stipend table, from 11 September 2025

Gazette notification G.S.R. 610(E), dated 3 September 2025 and published on 11 September 2025, replaced the stipend table in rule 11 of the Apprenticeship Rules, 1992. The minimum depends on your qualification, not on your trade. An ITI pass (a National Trade Certificate (NCVT) or a State certificate (SCVT)) is the "National or State Certificate holder" row.

All figures are per month and are minimums. The Directorate General of Training's office memorandum of 15 September 2025 says in so many words that an establishment may pay more than the minimum, and some do. The amount you are actually owed is the one in your contract on the Apprenticeship India portal: read it before you sign.

Second and third year

Rule 11 adds 10 per cent to the prescribed minimum in the second year of training and a further 15 per cent in the third year. For an ITI pass apprentice the second-year minimum is therefore ₹10,560 a month (₹9,600 plus ₹960).

Most trade apprenticeships after ITI last one or two years, depending on the trade. The contract carries a stipend table with one row per year, so the figure for each year of your own training is written there.

Who pays what: the establishment and the government

ITI pass apprentices are engaged under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). Under NAPS the government's share is 25 per cent of the prescribed minimum stipend, up to a maximum of ₹1,500 a month, paid by Direct Benefit Transfer straight into the apprentice's bank account. The establishment pays the rest. Graduates and diploma holders train under NATS, where the government share is 50 per cent, up to ₹4,500 a month. (Ministry of Skill Development, reply in the Rajya Sabha, 11 February 2026.)

The government share is paid only if the establishment meets the scheme's conditions; if it does not, the Gazette makes the establishment liable to pay the full stipend itself. Either way, a month's stipend is due by the tenth day of the following month. The government pays its share only for a person's first apprenticeship.

Leave, a second apprenticeship, and no promise of a job

No deduction may be made from the stipend for casual leave or medical leave. A person may do at most two apprenticeships, the second in a different trade, and there must be a gap of at least one year after the first one is completed (rule 7D, inserted in 2025).

Two lines of the contract are worth knowing before you start. An apprentice is a trainee, not a worker, so the labour laws do not apply to the apprenticeship: the Apprentices Act and its rules do. And the employer is not obliged to offer you a job when the training ends. What carries the apprenticeship into your next job is how you write it down.

Does the apprenticeship count as experience?

For government purposes, yes. In the same Rajya Sabha reply of 11 February 2026, the Ministry said the government has issued letters treating the training period as experience under both NAPS (for ITI graduates) and NATS. Passing the trade test at the end also earns the National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC), which the DGT ranks above the National Trade Certificate.

A private employer still decides for itself how much an apprenticeship is worth. That is why it belongs on your resume as a full experience entry (company, department, machines, and what you could do on your own by the end), and not as one line under education. The lines below are written that way.

Already in training on 11 September 2025?

A DGT clarification dated 15 October 2025 says that apprentices who started before 11 September 2025 and were still in training on that date are entitled to the revised rate from 11 September 2025; the months before it stay at the old rate. The Apprenticeship India portal generates an addendum to the contract for the change, which the establishment accepts from its login.

Apprenticeship lines to copy for your resume

Copy the lines that are true for you, replace every [bracket] and delete the rest. Every number should be one you can repeat in a practical test.

The apprenticeship as an experience entry

Put this under Experience, above your ITI education line. Every number must be one you can explain at the interview.

• Trade Apprentice ([trade]) ([company], [city] | [Month Year]) [Month Year] | under the Apprentices Act, 1961 (NAPS)
• Trained in the [department / line] on [machines or systems]; by month [X], handled [task] without supervision
• [One honest number: jobs per shift, vehicles serviced per day, joints passed at inspection, records entered]

Certificate lines

• National Apprenticeship Certificate (NAC): [trade], [year] | NAC No. [number]
• Apprenticeship: [trade], [company], [X] months | trade test due [Month Year]

Career objective after the apprenticeship

• ITI [trade] with a [12-month] trade apprenticeship at [company] under the Apprentices Act, 1961, seeking a [role] where I can keep working on [machines / area].
• NAC-holder in [trade] (apprenticeship at [company], [year]) looking for a full-time [role]; available to join from [date] and ready for shifts.

Common questions

Need your overall percentage for the certificate line? The ITI percentage calculator works it out from your NCVT marksheet: per year, overall, and against every pass mark.

ITI trade resume formats