RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026: 281 Posts, Apply Online – Last Date 25 Nov 2026

The RITES Limited (RITES), a Navratna central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways, has released Advertisement No. Pers./26-10/Apprentice/2026-27/01, dated 4 November 2026, for the RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026. Through this notification, 281 apprentice positions will be filled across India — 125 Graduate Apprentice (Engineering), 43 Graduate Apprentice (Non-Engineering), 62 Diploma Apprentice and 51 ITI Trade Apprentice. Applications opened on 5 November 2026, and the last date to complete the application is 25 November 2026. There is no written test and no interview in this recruitment; the merit list is prepared only from the marks of your qualifying examination. Every detail below is taken from the official advertisement itself. Candidates comparing apprentice openings this season can also read our IOCL Pipeline Apprentice Recruitment 2026 guide.

Quick Answer: RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026 has 281 seats for engineering graduates, non-engineering graduates, diploma holders and ITI pass-outs, with a monthly stipend of ₹10,560 to ₹15,650. Applying is a two-stage process — first on the NATS or NAPS portal, then a document form on the RITES website — and both stages close on 25 November 2026. The advertisement charges no application fee at all.

Two things in this notification catch candidates out every cycle, so read them before anything else. First, registering on the government apprenticeship portal is only half the job — RITES also wants a separate document form on its own website, and skipping it means your application is never counted. Second, there is a passing-year rule for graduates and diploma holders: if your final result came out before 5 November 2021, you are not eligible, however good your marks are. Both points are explained in full below.

RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026 – Overview

What kind of engagement is this? These are apprenticeship training positions under the national apprenticeship programme, not regular RITES posts. You train with RITES for one year, receive a fixed monthly stipend, and finish with an apprenticeship certificate and a year of work exposure inside a railway-sector PSU. There is no probation, no confirmation and no absorption at the end — the advertisement is upfront about that, and this page will not dress it up as anything else. If you are a recent pass-out looking for structured, paid industry training, this is exactly that opportunity.

RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026 – Important Dates

Do not treat 25 November as a single-portal deadline. Both stages — the NATS or NAPS application and the document form on the RITES website — must be finished by 11:59 PM on 25 November 2026. The RITES form accepts only one submission, so there is no scope for fixing a mistake after you press submit.

RITES Apprentice Vacancy 2026 – Branch-Wise and Category-Wise Details

Mechanical is the biggest stream in this drive with 85 seats across the graduate, diploma and ITI levels, followed by Electrical with 68 seats and Civil with 54. The full break-up exactly as printed in the official advertisement:

Graduate Apprentice (Engineering) — 125 posts.

Graduate Apprentice (Non-Engineering) — 43 posts.

Diploma Apprentice — 62 posts.

ITI Trade Apprentice — 51 posts.

Small disciplines, sharp competition. Architecture and Signal and Telecom have only 2 graduate seats each, so a single high-percentage candidate changes those lists completely — if you are applying there, your exact percentage matters more than anywhere else. Finance (21 seats) and HR (22 seats) are the only openings for non-engineering graduates, which means B.A., B.Com., B.Sc., BBA and BCA pass-outs all compete for the same 43 seats, making that one of the most crowded merit lists in this recruitment.

Category-wise total posts. The advertisement’s category table, reproduced exactly as notified:

One honest note on the category table: if you add the category columns of the official table (144 + 68 + 32 + 12 + 21), they come to 277, while the total printed in the advertisement is 281. The difference of 4 seats sits in the four branch rows that also carry 1 PwBD seat each. We have published the figures exactly as RITES notified them — the branch-wise and group-wise totals on this page are the official ones — and if RITES issues a corrigendum on this table, the corrected notice is what will apply. Do not rely on any website that quietly prints a different category split.

RITES Apprentice Eligibility Criteria 2026

Age limit. You must be at least 18 years old as on 5 November 2026, the cut-off date given in the advertisement. The advertisement does not print any upper age limit for these apprentice positions, so there is no maximum age bar beyond the passing-year rule explained below.

Educational qualification. The qualification depends on the apprentice category you apply for:

Degrees and diplomas must be from institutions recognised by the UGC or AICTE, and ITI certificates must be from institutes recognised by the NCVT or SCVT, as applicable. A qualification from an unrecognised body will not be accepted at document verification.

Minimum marks. General and EWS candidates need at least 60% marks in the qualifying examination. SC, ST, OBC (NCL) and PwBD candidates applying against reserved positions need at least 50% marks. Since selection is purely on this percentage, even a small difference in marks decides who makes the merit list — check the percentage on your marksheet carefully before applying.

If your marksheet shows grades or CGPA. Enter the percentage exactly as your university or institute has recorded it for you, and keep the original marksheet ready to support that figure at document verification. In a merit-only selection there is no exam score to fall back on — the number you type is the number your merit position is built on, so a careless entry here cannot be corrected later.

Passing-year rule — read this carefully. For graduate and diploma seats, your final result must not have been declared before 5 November 2021. In plain words, only candidates whose degree or diploma was completed within the last five years can apply. Candidates who are still in the final year, or whose result is awaited, are not eligible at all. This year restriction does not apply to ITI candidates — ITI pass-outs of any year can apply.

Reservation and certificates. Reservation for SC, ST, OBC (NCL), EWS and PwBD candidates applies as per government rules, and 4 positions are reserved horizontally for PwBD candidates with 40% or more disability. If you claim the OBC (NCL) quota, your certificate should be in the Central Government format and issued on or after 5 November 2025; older or state-format certificates are a common reason for rejection at verification.

Who cannot apply. The advertisement bars the following candidates, even if they meet the marks and age conditions:

• Candidates who have already completed apprenticeship training, or are currently undergoing it, under the Apprentices Act.
• Candidates who have one year or more of job experience after completing the qualifying examination.
• Final-year students and candidates whose qualifying-exam result is still awaited.
• Degree or diploma holders whose final result was declared before 5 November 2021.

A 30-second self-check before you start Stage 1. You are good to apply for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026 if all five of these hold true: (1) you were 18 years or older on 5 November 2026; (2) your marks are at least 60%, or at least 50% if you are applying against an SC, ST, OBC (NCL) or PwBD reserved seat; (3) for graduate and diploma seats, your final result was declared on or after 5 November 2021 — ITI candidates can skip this point; (4) you have never done an apprenticeship before and are not doing one now; and (5) you do not have a year or more of job experience after your qualification. If even one answer is no, the advertisement bars you — and document verification is where it will be caught.

Place of posting. Apprentices can be posted anywhere in India. You may indicate a preference while applying, but the final place of posting is decided by RITES, and requests for a change are not entertained afterwards.

RITES Apprentice Application Fee 2026

There is no application fee. The official advertisement prescribes no fee of any kind — not for General or OBC candidates, and not for SC, ST, EWS or PwBD candidates either. Registration on the NATS and NAPS portals is free, and so is the document form on the RITES website. If any agent, cyber café or website asks you for money in the name of a “RITES apprentice application fee”, that charge is not from RITES and the advertisement gives it no basis.

How to Apply for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026

This is the section most candidates get wrong, so go through it slowly. The application has two mandatory stages, and both must be completed by 25 November 2026. Finishing only the first stage is the same as not applying — RITES has said so in the advertisement.

Stage 1 – Apply on the NATS or NAPS portal.

1. Graduate and Diploma candidates go to the NATS portal at nats.education.gov.in. ITI candidates go to the NAPS portal at apprenticeshipindia.gov.in. Do not mix the two portals up — your category decides which one you use.
2. Register with your basic details and complete your student profile with your educational qualifications.
3. Search for the establishment named “RITES Limited” on the portal.
4. Apply against the RITES apprenticeship opening for your branch, discipline or trade, and save a copy or screenshot of the submitted application for your records.

Stage 2 – Submit your documents on the RITES form.

1. Open the RITES apprentice form at apprentice.rites.com/ApprenticeForm/.
2. Fill in your details exactly as they appear on your certificates — the name, date of birth and marks you enter here are matched against your documents later.
3. Scan all your documents and club them into one single PDF file. The PDF must not be larger than 10 MB; if it is, compress it before uploading, because an oversized file will not go through.
4. Check the form and the PDF one final time, then submit. The form accepts only one submission — you cannot submit again to correct a mistake.

Things that will silently kill your application. Documents sent by email or by post in hard copy are not accepted — the online form is the only route. A second submission is not possible, so a hasty first submission with the wrong file or a wrong mark entered cannot be repaired. And do not leave Stage 2 for the evening of 25 November: portal rush on the last day is real, and an incomplete Stage 2 means an incomplete application, whatever Stage 1 shows.

Common mistakes in this application — all of them avoidable.

• Applying on the wrong portal. Graduate and diploma candidates belong on NATS; ITI candidates belong on NAPS. An application filed on the wrong portal does not count for RITES.
• Stopping after Stage 1. The single most damaging mistake. Your NATS or NAPS application alone is not an application to RITES — the document form on apprentice.rites.com is compulsory.
• An oversized or split PDF. All documents go into one PDF of 10 MB or less. Multiple files, or a single file above the limit, will not go through the form.
• Marks that do not match the marksheet. The merit list is built on the percentage you enter. If document verification finds a different figure, your candidature can be cancelled on the spot.
• Applying despite a bar. If your degree result is older than November 2021, or you have already completed an apprenticeship, applying anyway only wastes your effort — every bar in the advertisement is checked at verification.

RITES Apprentice Selection Process 2026

Merit on your qualifying-exam marks — nothing else. There is no written test, no CBT and no interview in RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026. RITES prepares the merit list purely on the percentage of marks you scored in your essential qualifying examination — your degree for graduate seats, your diploma for diploma seats and your ITI marks for trade seats. It works the same way as the merit-based selection in the HCL Apprentice Recruitment 2026, where your marksheet, not an exam hall, decides the list.

Tie-breaking rule. If two candidates have exactly the same percentage, the older candidate — the one with the earlier date of birth — is placed higher in the merit list.

Intimation and document verification. Shortlisted candidates are informed by email, and the merit list is also published on the RITES website, rites.com. If your name is on the list, you will be called for document verification with your original certificates before joining. Any mismatch between the marks you entered online and the marks on your original marksheet can get your candidature cancelled at this stage, so enter your percentage with care. Keep the email address you registered with active, and check the RITES website regularly after the last date — since there is no exam or admit-card stage in between, the merit list and the email intimation are the only two ways you will hear from RITES.

RITES Apprentice Stipend 2026

Be clear about what this money is. This is a monthly training stipend under the apprenticeship programme — it is not a salary, and it does not come with a pay scale, DA, HRA or the allowances of a regular RITES post. Part of the graduate and diploma stipend comes as a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) share from the Government, as the table shows. The engagement is for one year of training only, and RITES has stated plainly in the advertisement that it has no obligation to offer you employment after the training ends. Treat this year for what it genuinely is — paid, hands-on experience with a Navratna railway PSU and a certificate that carries weight in later railway and PSU recruitments — not as a back door into a permanent job.

How the DBT share reaches you. DBT means Direct Benefit Transfer — that portion of the stipend is the Government’s share under the apprenticeship programme, credited from the Government’s side, while the total figure in the table is what you receive in a month. This split is exactly why the advertisement prints two numbers for graduate and diploma apprentices. Keep your bank account details consistent across your NATS or NAPS profile and the RITES form, so neither part of the stipend gets held up over a detail mismatch.

Important Links

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How many vacancies are there in RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

RITES has notified 281 apprentice positions — 125 Graduate Apprentice (Engineering), 43 Graduate Apprentice (Non-Engineering), 62 Diploma Apprentice and 51 ITI Trade Apprentice. Civil Engineering has the most seats at 40, followed by Mechanical Engineering at 36. These are one-year apprenticeship training positions, not regular jobs.

What is the last date to apply for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

The last date is 25 November 2026, up to 11:59 PM. Both application stages — the NATS or NAPS application and the document submission on the RITES form — must be completed by this date. Applications opened on 5 November 2026.

Is applying on NATS or NAPS alone enough for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

No. Applying on NATS or NAPS is only the first stage. You must also submit your documents through the RITES form at apprentice.rites.com. If you skip the second stage, your application is incomplete and will not be considered, even if your NATS or NAPS application is accepted.

What is the stipend in RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

Graduate apprentices get ₹15,650 per month, diploma apprentices get ₹13,450 per month and ITI apprentices get ₹10,560 per month. The graduate figure includes a Government DBT share of ₹6,150 and the diploma figure includes a DBT share of ₹5,450. This is a training stipend, not a salary.

Is there any application fee for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

No. The official advertisement does not prescribe any application fee for any category. You do not have to pay anything to register on NATS or NAPS or to submit the document form on the RITES website.

What is the age limit for RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

You must be at least 18 years old as on 5 November 2026, the cut-off date given in the advertisement. The advertisement does not print any upper age limit for these apprentice positions.

I completed my degree in 2020. Am I eligible for RITES Apprentice 2026?

No, not for a graduate or diploma seat. The advertisement bars candidates whose degree or diploma result was declared before 5 November 2021, so only recent pass-outs can apply. This passing-year rule does not apply to ITI candidates, who can apply in any passing year.

Is there a written exam or interview in RITES Apprentice Recruitment 2026?

No. There is no written test and no interview. The merit list is prepared purely on the percentage of marks you scored in your qualifying examination — degree, diploma or ITI. If two candidates have the same percentage, the older candidate is placed higher in the merit list.

Can I submit the RITES apprentice document form twice or send documents by post?

No. The RITES document form accepts only one submission, and all your documents must be clubbed into a single PDF file of up to 10 MB. Documents sent by email or by post in hard copy are not accepted, so check the PDF carefully before you submit the form.

Will I get a permanent job in RITES after completing the apprenticeship?

No. The engagement is apprenticeship training for one year only. RITES has clearly stated in the advertisement that it has no obligation to offer you employment after the training ends, so treat this as a training and experience opportunity, not a route into a permanent post.

If this window does not work for you, keep an eye on other open apprentice and government recruitments on our Active Govt Jobs page, which is updated as new notifications arrive. For more government jobs and daily updates, browse the Latest Jobs section of New Sarkari Results — and before applying, always verify the final details in the official Advertisement No. Pers./26-10/Apprentice/2026-27/01 on rites.com.

Written by Ravi Singh

Ravi Singh is the Editor (Government Jobs) at New Sarkari Results, an independent information portal for Sarkari Result, Sarkari Naukri, admit card, answer key, syllabus and admission updates. He has 10+ years of experience covering Government Jobs, Railway Jobs, SSC, Banking, Teaching, Police, Defence and state recruitment boards. Every update on this site is verified directly from the official notification PDF issued by the commission or board — never from third-party aggregators.