 "PM Internship Scheme third pilot likely this month with programme tweaks")
The third round of the Prime Minister Internship Scheme’s pilot is likely to be launched from mid-January with some tweaks in the programme to make it more attractive to applicants, according to sources.
The 12-month programme is expected to offer shorter internship duration in the third phase of the pilot in certain sectors such as services, sources said.
The number of candidates accepting offers had declined 12.4 per cent in the second round of the pilot programme as compared to the first, according to the data shared by the government in Parliament.
The data showed that while 28,141 applicants accepted internships in round one, in the second phase, this was down to 24,638.
While on the previous occasion, 34 per cent of the offers made were accepted, it reduced to 29 per cent this time, even though the absolute number of offers went up slightly in the second phase, the data showed.
In the second round, Jubilant Foodworks rang up the highest number of internship opportunities at 13,658, followed by Power Grid Corporation of India at 7,880 and HDFC Bank at 6,800.
Around 70 new companies joined the internship programme in round two.
The PMIS was announced in the full Budget for 2024-25. It aims to provide internship opportunities to 10 million young people in top 500 companies in five years. As an initiation to this scheme, the ministry launched a pilot project of the scheme on October 3 last year, and the target was giving 125,000 internship opportunities in a year.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had told a parliamentary panel that the long duration of internships, and lack of alignment between candidates’ interests and the roles offered were among the reasons for the low take-up. Besides, there was the request from industrial training institutes and polytechnics to bring down the age for selecting applicants.
The MCA is considering incorporating some changes in the next pilot to address these challenges. Industry has also demanded that the government increase the number of companies taking part in the scheme from top 500 to top 2,000 as per their CSR spending of the last three years.
The MCA provides direct benefit transfer of ₹6,000 to the intern on joining and a cover under the PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima and PM Suraksha Yojana. A financial assistance of ₹5,000 per month is also provided to the intern, of which ₹4,500 is disbursed by the government and ₹500 is paid by the company from its CSR funds.
Companies can provide assistance over and above ₹500 if they wish to do so from their own funds.