Internship is a part of learning experience for students but companies nowadays are increasingly viewing it as a potential tool for recruiting full-time employees.
Firms are today experimenting with jobs that grow out of internships, which gives them ample time to evaluate prospective freshers and retain them at entry level.
President of Sri Balaji Society Group of Institutes, (Col) (Retd) ABalasubramanian, said, “It is a golden opportunity for both students and companies to make the most of the internship programme. The companies get two months to test a fresher on hard projects, giving them ample time to assess an intern, before they can appoint them as full-time employee.” He added that, at present, companies absorb not more than 5% of the interns.
Looking at internship as a would-be opportunity for students to secure a permanent job, Balasubramanian complained, “Today’s students consider internship as a holiday period and it has just become a formality.” He further informed that this year, the quality of campus placements have been very good, compared to last year.
“Due to slowdown in economy, IT companies are playing cautious. Institutes must tell students to look at internship as an employment opportunity,” he said.
Internship is definitely a recruiting tool said Umeed Kothavala, CEO and co-founder of city-based Extentia Information Technology.
“There is a huge scope to learn so much during the 10-15 week internship compared to a half-an-hour interview. Over 40 -50% among our employees started as interns through our internship programme, Connect. We get an opportunity to evaluate them.”
He further stated that it also gives an opportunity to interns to familiarise with the working environment of the company and cultivate the habit of hard work.
Extentia an organisation with an established internship programme, Connect, is also mentioned in Michael Griffin’s book, Business Internship. A renowned accounting professor, Griffin is an internship director at Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts, US. “Through our internship programme, we are looking for results. Once the individual is selected, we take care of all their needs and help them settle down quickly. During the internship, students are assigned a mentor and go through induction programme. Also,regular review and feedback sessions are held,” said Kothavala.
Even though companies have a mandate to approach campuses for placements, Jashan Joshi, talent acquisition head at Capegemini India, said, “We have the freedom and liberty to offer full-time employment to interns, depending on the market situation. We recruit 10% of those who are doing their internship with us.”
He added that students come as interns not out of choice, but because it is just part of their programme. Training and placement head at JaywantShikshan Prasarak Mandal (JSPM), Jayant Unawane, said, “Over 20% of our students who join various companies for their summer internship get offers to join as full-time employees. Only those get selected who work hard and deliver results.”
Source : DNAINDIA
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