The War Technician Scheme started by the Govt of India was later converted as ‘Craftsman Training Scheme’ in 1950.Later the administration of the Craftsman Training Scheme was handed over to the State Governments from 01/11/1956.The department was named as ‘Industrial Training Department’ in 1970. This department is in charge of Craftsman Training and Apprenticeship Training Schemes, and the Director of Employment and Training is the Head of the Department and his headquarters is at Thiruvananthapuram.

The Employment service is now the joint concern of central & state governments. The Director of Employment in the state has his headquarters at Trivandrum. There are district employment exchanges at district level, and town employment exchanges at taluk level. For the physically handicapped, separate employment exchanges are functioning at Trivandrum, Neyyattinkara, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Calicut. Professional and Executive Employment exchange is functioning at Trivandrum to cater to the needs of the professionally qualified candidates. This has two branch offices at Ernakulam and Kozhikode.

At the university level,University employment, information & guidance bureaus are functioning at Trivandrum (Kerala University), Kottayam (M.G.University), Cochin (Cochin University for Science & Technology), Mannuthy (Kerala Agricultural University) and Kozhikode (Calicut university)