12 pc students converting internships into jobs: Report

Hamirpur/New Delhi: About 12% of college students who secured internships last year were able to convert them into full-time positions based on their performance, says a report by career-tech platform Internshala.

A majority of students (78 percent) who secured internships did so in work-from-home roles, says the report.

The report also deals with the impact colleges’ training and placement cells are making in students’ career journeys by making them employable through skilling and internship opportunities.

The report highlights that currently, over 21,500 higher education institutions (HEIs) are working with the platform to provide their over 5.8 lakh students with opportunities that make them more employable and thereby bridging the industry academia gap.

There has been a substantial increase in colleges’ involvement in spreading internship and skilling awareness among their students. Additionally, consistent guidelines from government bodies like UGC, AICTE, etc. have also played a key role in nudging not only engineering and management higher education institutions (HEIs) but also all degree colleges across the country.

In 2023, more than 33,800 students secured internships and jobs. This number is expected to rise significantly for 2024 by the end of the year. The average stipend for students securing internships with the support of their college’s TPOs was Rs 4,200 per month, and the maximum stipend offered was as high as Rs 60,000 per month.

These financial rewards not only offer students a source of income but also validate their newly acquired skills in the job market. Additionally, for those students who transitioned from internships to full-time employment, or found fresher job opportunities, the annual package ranged from Rs 3 lakh per annum (LPA) to Rs 12 LPA, highlighting the value employers place on candidates with internship experience.

Geographically, cities including Delhi-NCR (26%), Mumbai (10%), Bangalore (7%), Pune (6%), Hyderabad (6%), Kolkata (4%), Chennai (2%), and Jaipur (2%) have emerged as top hubs where students from these 21,500 colleges were able to get hired for internship and job opportunities.

On bringing out the report, Sarvesh Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Internshala, said, “Internshala would not have been born if it was not for that one email from my alma-mater IIT Madras to its alumni in 2011 that flooded my inbox with request from alum startups who wanted to hire interns through my Internshala blog - this gave me the conviction to take the plunge and pursue Internshala full time. Evident from this instance, it is undeniable that colleges play a fundamental role in laying the foundation of a student's career journey.

The day is not far when we’ll see all the HEIs across India following these footsteps and make the 40 million Indian students career-ready, Aggarwal said.