Labour Ministry Partners With Apna For Job Listings On NCS

In a bid to boost job prospects for young job seekers, the Union labour ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with early talent hiring platform Apna. 

The partnership will bring over 10 Lakh job opportunities annually to the National Career Service (NCS) portal, the ministry said.

Launched in 2015, NCS is a national portal which provides digital services like job placement, vacancy notification, information on formal training programmes, on-the-job training to job seekers. 

As per the ministry, the portal has mobilised over 40 Lakh registered employers and 4.40 Cr vacancies since its launch. Further, it claims to have about 10 Lakh vacancies available at any given time on the NCS.  

Under the partnership, Apna will post job listings on the NCS. While Apna will gain access to NCS’ candidate database, the labour ministry will facilitate integration via online and offline interface. 

It is pertinent to note that Apna also partnered with the DPIIT last month to help the startups registered with the department with skilled manpower. As per the partnership, every company registered on the government’s BHASKAR platform will receive hiring credits worth INR 2,000 on Apna’s platform.

Founded by Nirmit Parikh in 2019, Apna claims to connect more than 5.9 Cr job seekers and 7 Lakh employers across India. The startup counts Tiger Global, Lightspeed, GSV Ventures, Rocketship, Insight Partners, Owl Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Greenoaks, among others, as its backers.

It entered the unicorn club in 2021 after raising $100 Mn in a funding round. At that time, it was the fastest Indian startup to turn into a unicorn. Overall, Apna has raised a total funding of $193.5 Mn to date.

On the financial front, Apna’s operating revenue declined 29% to INR 127.6 Cr in FY24 from INR 180.2 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its net loss more than halved to INR 51.3 Cr from INR 120.3 Cr in FY23. 

Meanwhile, the NCS is trying to expand its scope by partnering with various private players.

In September last year, the labour ministry partnered Amazon India to post work opportunities at Amazon’s corporate offices and operations network on the NCS portal. 

The ministry also said last year that it was working towards upgrading the NCS portal with advanced technologies, including AI.