Bengaluru:The employment opportunities for engineering graduates are likely to increase in the coming years through the internship programme announced by the central government in the Union Budget 2024 last month.
According to HR experts, around 60 per cent of all interns usually get absorbed by technology firms to full-time jobs after completion of their internship programmes. If this trend is followed, then the job prospects of engineering graduates will improve substantially after the implementation of the massive internship programme.
“Usually, the absorption of interns into full-time job varies from year to year and from corporate to corporate. However, the usual conversion is around 60 per cent though there is no study to support it. However, if correct direction is given to the whole internship programme, it is a welcome move. We have to see how the internship programme is rolled out and how it is implemented,” Supaul Chanda, an HR expert with decades of experience on the staffing space, told the Education Bytes.
He, also pointed out that the fine print of the internship programme would determine the success of the programme.
In the recently held Union Budget 2024, it has been proposed that an internship programme will be launched under which over 1 crore Indian youth will be provided internships in 500 top companies in the next 5 years. These interns will be paid stipends to make this programme attractive for college graduates. They will be provided a one-time assistance of Rs 6,000 and a monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 during their training period.
While the fine print of its implementation is yet to be released by the central government, some reports indicate that top 500 companies on market cap are likely to be selected for training interns.
According to IT sector experts, such an internship programme will help in bridging the skill gap seen among engineering graduates and reduce the cost of training for software services companies.
According to a study by the NITI Aayog in 2022, about 48 per cent of engineering students in the country are unemployed. Industry body Nasscom in its earlier study has pointed out that barely 2.5 lakh engineering graduates are able to get jobs in the core engineering industry out of the total 15 lakh engineers passing out annually in India.
The industry body has time and again said that there exists a huge employability gap among freshers in order to get jobs in the technology industry.
“Such a gap will definitely be bridged through such programme. Importantly, engineering graduates from tier-II and tier-III cities are likely to immensely benefit from such internship programme as they usually don’t get a chance at campus placements because large IT firms prefer reputed institutes,” said a placement head of an engineering college.