The Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) was introduced by the Government of India in year 1950 to ensure a steady flow of skilled workers in different trades for the domestic industry, to raise quantitatively and qualitatively the industrial production by systematic training, to reduce unemployment among the educated youth by providing them employable skills, to cultivate and nurture a technical and industrial attitude in the minds of younger generation. The Scheme is the most important in the field of Vocational Training, has been shaping craftsmen to meet the existing as well as future manpower need, through the vast network of ITIs spread over various States / Union Territories in the country. The day-to-day administration of ITIs under the Craftsmen Training Scheme was transferred to the State Governments/ Union Territory administrations with effect from the year 1956. From 1st April 1969, the financial control of the Industrial Training Institutes in the States as well as in the Union Territories was transferred to the respective State Governments / Union Territory.
The ITIs play a vital role in growth of GDP of the country in terms of providing skilled manpower to the industry. Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) was initiated, in 1950 by establishing about 50 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) for imparting skills in various vocational trades to meet the skilled manpower requirement for industrial growth of the country. Several new private ITIs were established in 1980s in southern states mostly in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, from where trained craftsmen found placement in the Gulf countries.