The Importance of Internship

Internship is that phase where students are trained and provided a platform to enhance the skills they learned in classrooms. It provides an edge that helps students apply all the knowledge they derived through classroom teaching to the work they do in industries they intern at.

AICTE, a national-level apex advisory body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India – plays the eagle’s eye for the kind of technical education happening across educational institutions in India. In its mandate –

1. It has made an internship with a time duration of six months compulsory for students pursuing engineering studies in India – https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2018/nov/21/aicte-makes-internships-must-for-engineering-students-1901095.html
2. Engineering students are required to undergo 3 internships during the course of their studies.

How does internship help engineering students?

Engineering students cannot give a miss to internships if they aim to be engineers.

As engineering students prepare themselves to plunge into a world that would shape up their careers, internships could help them gain some experiential learning.

A number of technical education institutions out there lay a lot of emphasis on their students partaking experiential learning. Engineering students are required to pursue internship opportunities with companies that the institutions have liaised with. Students can also opt to intern at companies of their choice provided they have the know how of how to go about to finally being an intern at one. Those freshers stand out in the crowd when they have work experience to show. How do they show that kind of work experience? It is an internship that answers this question.

Being part of an internship program helps engineering students gain professional experience and also build connections. They learn being responsible and staying committed. And who knows, these traits might help them with a job at the same organization where they interned. Companies like Wipro hire engineering interns from reputed colleges. There is hand holding done too where interning students find support from the company to learn new technologies. And when these engineering students finally graduate, a bunch of them transform into being employees with the same organization for a longer run. Now isn’t that really great?

The learning gained at technical education institutions may not be the all-in-all that can help engineering students work wonders in the professions they choose. Internships help engineering students take a test drive of the field they are ready to drive off with after college.

1. They get a taste of how it feels to work in a professional environment.
2. They might as well have second thoughts on a field, which at first they found appealing.
3. They get to apply skills and theories learned in classrooms; there is a lot of refining of skills too. Simply put, students develop further.
4. They get hands on exposure.
5. They get to work under an expert who is ideally the mentor.

Internship helps employ ability

According to reports produced after a survey conducted by NACE, National Association of Colleges and Employers, in the past –

1. Around 44% of fresh incumbents in big companies came from internship programs in 2010.
2. The conversion rate of engineering interns turning into full time employees stood out at 58% in 2012.
3. Of the students who took up engineering for higher studies, 60% remained unemployed due to lack of work experience. Internships could have helped them gain that kind of work experience.

Ref :

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/why-internships-are-important-for-engineering-students-or-freshers/

https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/internships/the-positive-implications-of-internships-on-early-career-outcomes/

We can now witness a propelled employment rate of employment of engineering students after AICTE mandated internships for engineering students from 2017.

Important factors to be considered by students before taking up internship

There are a few important factors that need to be considered before engineering students take up internship –

1. The knowledge and skills the engineering students have amassed so far.
2. Students can act on being interns during vacations; this saves time and breaks can be avoided during running semesters.
3. Engineering can start applying for internships at the earliest phase of their engineering studies too. It helps them in engaging with real world while they are still learning the theories and concepts in colleges.
4. Internships come with additional scores that help as boosters for higher grades.
5. To be employable, students can pursue internships while studying or even after finishing the engineering course they are part of.
6. A large section of engineering students in India take up internships during the last three semesters. It helps them prepare themselves for companies that come to the campus for placement of students.

Internship programs benefiting companies

There is now a stupendous rise in how the companies are going about exploring and thereby reaping the benefits of finding fresh talent at lower costs by creating internship programs for students from across various educational institutions. Internship is a platform that puts companies, colleges and candidates, all in a win-win situation.

When we say students are not the only ones drawing benefits, we count the benefits that fall in the kitty of the other stakeholders – the colleges and the companies. Some of the best employers and top performers in the industry are those that have believed in keeping the doors open for interns – TCS, WIPRO and CTS are but to name only a few honchos. Internships catapult success manifolds.

The talent that comes in the form of interns might as well go further and become integral parts of the companies they intern at in the long run – an intern becoming an employee with immense expertise and zeal that perfectly fits into the organizational frame.

There is a lot of learning and unlearning and learning happening with the companies creating internship programs. Mentoring and guiding the students from different colleges helps companies gain some learning too. While companies engage with new talent, they learn newer perspectives of dealing with very difficult tasks too at times.

For companies seeking an entirely fresh perspective to hiring and recruitment while being cost-effective, creating internships is the right choice. Join hands with an Enabler like MyAnatomy that acts as the bridge between candidates, campuses and companies leaves no stone unturned in putting its partner ahead of others.

Conclusion

If you are a student and you need help in finding an internship opportunity or if you are a college that has to meet the norms set by the government and also want the best for your students or if you are a company that needs hand holding to keep your doors open for interns –
You have enablers like Internshala, MyAnatomy and Let’s Intern to help you in your quest.