Internships, once restricted to only heavily skill-intensive jobs involving high-risk situations (such as in the medical field), have now expanded their scope to all fields, including engineering, law, commerce and the humanities. Internships have become a way for undergraduates to launch themselves easily into their careers. To cater to the ever-growing needs of the job market, and to be a notch above many other similarly-qualified applicants, work experience via internships has now become a basic requirement for all college students. Most hiring companies look for some level of prior experience in their field, and having an internship or two on one’s resume works wonders, by opening many more doors to lucrative and satisfying jobs.
Be it research, core and non-core profiles, or volunteer work with non-profit organizations, internships help one gain a taste of what to expect as a professional in the industry or research area they have chosen. They give students a window of opportunity to play around with different fields of work and research, in addition to introducing them to a work environment, which undoubtedly reduces the stress of post-university job-hunting and graduate school applications. The icing on the cake is the stipend, which, in the case of a paid internship, allows for some extra pocket money as well!
The catch, however, is that good internships are notoriously hard to land, within India or abroad. Outside of tier one universities, students in many colleges in India are not even aware of the concept of internships. Many institutes do not have a mandatory internship component as part of the degrees they offer, neither do they offer assistance to students to find internships on their own. Aspiring researchers and professionals therefore miss out on opportunities that otherwise could have been the perfect launchpads towards their dream careers.
NPTEL (National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning), the online educational platform funded by the Indian government, has very recently stepped in to bridge this gap. In a bid to make practical and professional experience more accessible in addition to skill-building and learning, NPTEL, in collaboration with Internshala, an online internship-listing platform, has opened up internship opportunities for students in colleges that are its partners as Local Chapters.
The impact of this NPTEL initiative has been impressive even at its nascent stage, with 1273 students from 119 different colleges in India landing internships within January to September 2019. The diversity of internships offered is also commendable, since students get the opportunity to work with organisations in a wide range of fields ranging from analytics, core engineering, research and development to graphic design, social work and education. International organisations such as the Centre for United Nations, scientific research organisations like the All India Council for Robotics and Automation, educational companies like Pearson India and top-universities in India such as IIT Madras and IIT Delhi have all recruited students as summer interns or project associates.
Some of these recruiters also offer full-time positions for eligible candidates who have been satisfactory interns. 46% of all companies that listed themselves on Internshala were ready to hire candidates full-time after the completion of their internship. From January to September 2019, 572 paid internship offers were accepted by students, out of which 168 students were paid more than INR 10000. 701 internships offered performance-based stipend to students. Among the paid internships, almost 30% offers paid students Rs. 10000 or more, and another 29% paid 5000 or more – which is a great incentive for students to make a quick buck during their vacations, while also picking up important skills.
The impact of this new initiative by NPTEL has brought internship opportunities closer to colleges and institutes in tier 2 and 3 regions in India. It has allowed bright and talented students explore their areas of interest, while also spending their summers productively – be it working in a demanding startup environment, meeting up with the expectations of well-established corporate organisations, or making an impact at the ground level by working with NGOs and social organizations.
For a start, this NPTEL initiative has worked quite smoothly, and as part of its plan for continuing this initiative, NPTEL is in the process of entering more MoUs with other institutions. More industrial and research opportunities will be opened up for an even more diverse set of students in the months to come. Being one among the first online educational platforms world-wide that enables students to gain practical experience as well, NPTEL is bridging inequalities in the higher education system in India, by enabling undergraduate and graduate students from all backgrounds to be more enterprising and well-prepared for their careers and life after graduation.
