The National Career Service (NCS) Project has envisaged setting up of Model Career Centres (MCCs), a brick and mortar model of NCS, which have state-of-the-art infrastructure and will act as a hub of career counselling and also provide career related services such as organising job fairs, mobilise the employers, provide career counselling at local level etc. in collaboration with States and other institutions to the jobseekers and employers through outreach activities. The Government provides financial assistance to the states for establishing model career centres based on the proposals and scheme guidelines. Each Model Career Centre is supported by one Young Professional engaged for management of the centre and for better coordination with the Ministry, for a period of three years (extendable up to 5 Yrs). These model career centres can be replicated by the States from their own resources.
So far, 407 MCCs have been approved (including 7 non-funded) under the NCS project. States/UTs interested to set up such MCCs will be expected to replicate services offered in these centres to other Employment Exchanges.
The MCCs are expected to connect local youth and other job seekers with all possible/available job opportunities in the vicinity. The MCCs would be undertaking outreach and counselling activities for the aspiring jobseekers. The Central Government will now provide grant-in-aid upto Rs. 60 lakh for establishment of each new MCCs as per the revised Guidelines issued to States/UTs on 16th March, 2022.
YP Scheme
Under the National Career Service (NCS) project, it was decided that the DGE will be facilitating creation of modernised infrastructure and IT enabled Model Career Centres (MCCs). These would be supported by one Young Professional (YP). This young professional allocation aims to utilize the knowledge, energy and fresh way of thinking of these young social leaders to help better transform the emerging landscape of employment services and career counselling in India. These candidates should be highly qualified, should be ready to develop a professional career as motivated and future ready individuals to successfully drive, achieve and sustain the objectives of NCS. Ministry of Labour and Employment did the first round of YP recruitment in early 2015 and the subsequent two rounds were conducted in the year 2016. The Young Professionals’ scope of work shall include, but not be limited to: 1. facilitating smooth and efficient working of Model Career Centres 2. Supporting state governments and/or private institutions partnered with the NCS in replicating this model in other centres 3. Preparing regular reports on success parameters; to be shared with DGE 4. Identifying best practices and pain areas/bottlenecks in implementing DGE schemes 5. Coordinating outreach activities in schools/colleges and conducting job-fairs including interaction with academia, local industry, manufacturing associations, training providers, counsellors and others. The Young Professional scheme of NCSP is conceptualized and monitored by NICS Noida, which includes YP Recruitment, Training of YPs, Monitoring the work performance of YPs, Annual appraisals and contract extensions of YPs, disbursement of YPs remuneration, grant of increments etc. YP scheme was launched in 2015 and so far 269 YPs have been recruited out of which 138 are currently in position as per the details below:
| S. No. | YP Batch | No. Of YPs Joined | No. Of YPs Currently In Position |
| 1 | Batch 1 | 31 | 00 |
| 2 | Batch 2 | 28 | 00 |
| 3 | Batch 3 | 32 | 00 |
| 4 | Batch 4 | 24 | 00 |
| 5 | Batch 5 | 14 | 00 |
| 6 | Batch 6 | 78 | 76 |
| 7 | Batch 7 | 62 | 62 |
| Total | 269 | 138 |
Young Professional: Recruitment Details
| S. No. | YP Batch | Dates Of Recruitment Drive | Venue |
| 1 | Batch 1 | 11th-13th June, 2015 | NICS, Noida |
| 2 | Batch 2 | 1st-3rd April, 2016 | NICS, Noida |
| 3 | Batch 2 | 8th-9th April, 2016 | Don Bosco, Bengaluru |
| 4 | Batch 3 | 10th-12th August, 2016 | NICS, Noida |
| 5 | Batch 3 | 27th August, 2016 | NCSC for DA, Guwahati |
| 6 | Batch 4 | 23rd-25th March, 2017 | NICS, Noida |
| 7 | Batch 5 | 10th – 12th October,2018 | NICS, Noida |
| 8 | Batch 6 | 27th-29th April, 2022 | NICS, Noida |
| 9 | Batch 6 | 9th -11th May, 2022 | NICS, Noida |
| 10 | Batch 7 | 11th-15th July, 2022 | NICS, Noida |
Interlinking of Employment Exchanges:
In the scheme, Directorate General of Employment (DGE) will provide funds for basic IT infrastructure, minor re-furbishing of the 978+ employment exchanges and for organizing job fairs at the district level on a quarterly basis. Several States/UTs already have good ICT based systems for the employment services while other states require certain infrastructure to improve accessibility of the NCS services at the employment exchanges. The Scheme contours and funding areas are as follows:
(a) One-time grant up to ₹ 3 lakh per employment exchange for IT infrastructure enhancement.
(b) One-time grant up to ₹ 5 lakh per employment exchange for refurbishing the office complex.
(c) A grant of up to ₹ 2 lakh per job fair per quarter to be organized at the District level.
The States need to send their proposals, which broadly includes components such as State Details, Financial Requirement - State level, Basic Details of Employment Exchanges, Requirement in IT Infrastructure and Refurbishing, Job Fair Details etc. For States having ICT based integrated systems for the employment exchanges, web services have been created for inter-linking state databases with the NCS Portal.
Status of Employment Exchanges:
As of now, funds have been released to 28 States/UTs under interlinking component of NCS. As of now, 18 States have completed the process of Integration, 7 States/UTs are directly registering on the portal.