Page 3 - Guidelines for Internship/Research Internship for Under Graduate Students

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The India Skill Report (ISR), 2022 highlights that youth employability has improved to
46.2 % in 2021 from 45.97% till 2020. Interestingly, 51.44% employability of females
was observed compared to 45.97% of males for 2021-22. In the year 2023, undergraduates
in domain of the commerce got the highest employability rating at about 60.62%. The
reports further mentioned that, 88.6% of graduates are looking for internship
opportunities. In 2022, 88.42% of respondents in the report have given preference to an
internship for gaining experience. It was also recorded that the year 2022 was also the
year to mark the highest demand for internships since 2016. It is also observed that in India
employers like to hire employees having at least a year of working experience (ISR, 2022).

In India, there are many platforms (Internshala, Lets Intern, Killer Launch, Hello Intern)
that offer internships from many renowned organizations. In addition to this, many other
portals are available which provide trainings and a range of courses across Industries.
Experts also enroll in internships to get life-changing experiences. Internshala launched an
initiative called the “Grand Summer Internship Fair”, which offers more than 23000
internship opportunities to people from all educational backgrounds. The internship model
proactively works as the primary value for providing the familiarity of genuine work in a
representative situation to the students by the mentor under closed supervision. The pupil
gain experience in a tested pedagogical norm and is expected to make critical thinking with
a range of values and observations.

The National Education Policy 2020-(NEP-2020) views that the purpose of the education
system is to develop good human beings capable of rational thought and action, possessing
compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, scientific temper and creative
imagination, with sound ethical moorings and values. It aims at producing engaged,
productive, and contributing citizens for building an equitable, inclusive, and plural society
as envisaged by our Constitution. The NEP-2020 envisions promoting quality research in
higher education and to ensure quality education by higher education institutions (HEIs),
research and innovation are two inherently important aspects. The societal needs of our
country can only be addressed by having a strong knowledge, skills, value and research-
oriented vibrant higher education ecosystem for sustainable development.

In accordance with the NEP-2020, the UGC framed a new student-centric “Curriculum and
Credit Framework for Undergraduate Programmes” (CCFUP) incorporating a flexible
choice-based credit system, multiple entry and exit options, and a multidisciplinary
approach. In an internship course students require to participate in a work experience or
professional activity, or cooperative education activity with an entity external to the
education institution, under the supervision of an expert from the given external entity.
A prime aspect of the internship/research internship is induction into actual work
situations. Internships includes working with government or private organizations, higher
education institutions, universities, research and development labs/research
organisations/non-government organisations, enterprises, centres involved in research,
innovativeness and entrepreneurship, business organizations, local industry, artists,