INTERNSHIP REDEFINED: NOW IT GOES UNDERWAY FOR STUDENTS AT THE AGE GROUP 13- 21 YEARS

In a first, the internship is now also at a school level. A new initiative by a famous city IT Company indeed breaks into an unchartered path seeking new outcomes which would impact the quality of manpower in the country in the times to come. Whereas, the conventional internship normally begins around the end phase of a college education with a view to give student, an exposure to the industry, the school internship goes side by side of conventional classroom education. It aims at providing an opportunity to students at an early age to identify their strengths, innate expertize and passion and provide freedom to pursue their core talent, an ultimate deliverable. The hands-on experience of working on live projects provides them the much needed belief in their abilities. There is one strong view that the school internship is a needless diverter of students focus and goes against the very grains of learning of basic education, essentially needed to build fundamentals and for application to honing special skills and for innovate. However, in a technology driven and ever evolving era of continuous teaching- learning, side by side, skill development process adopted by the school internship is bound to prove an academic clincher, a powerful enabler.

Industry in India, for want of skills is struggling to meet the global business competitiveness in quality and innovation. When a graduate  engineer joins a company, he/she is woefully short on desired expertize in the application of his knowledge and companies takes a lot of time in training the resource. The school internship which goes side-by-side will fill up the much needed gap. The initiative by a Gurgaon based IT Company appears quite visionary and delivers squarely on people’s choices and needs. It incubates skilled manpower for the industry.

“School Internship seeks to invite students to take some time out of their regular studies which may well be during the school off hours, on Sundays and holidays. We request parents to support their wards discover, untapped potential and excel”, says the Director of City Innovates Ms Sneh Jhamb.

The unique feature of the internship program is an option extended to the students to earn while they learn. This provides students necessary financial support to subsequently pursue higher studies and other expenses. Selected students are given live projects and rewarded. Furthermore, a student capable of working independently may seek projects through various bidding sites and earn while working from home. The Company is ever willing to absorb a good student as an employee on regular roll, if considered fit for a job.

IT Sector contributes about 6% of India’s total GDP, providing employment directly or indirectly to over 2 million people is a pointer to the direction that IT skills shall continue to dominate the service industry. E-retail brands like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal are making headlines turning the attention of the youth to grab the opportunity in the emerging fields, sooner than later. It is time to adapt school internships to ‘catch them young’

                                                                                                  By JR Sharma, a columnist and CIO City Innovates