The Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme seems to be getting a setback. Under the pilot project of this scheme, many candidates have withdrawn from doing internship after getting offers. When companies first started making offers under the scheme in November, the acceptance rate was only one-third in the first week. But now gradually this rate has increased to two-thirds and now it is improving further.
According to reports, many candidates cited parental pressure as the reason behind applying for the scheme but later they rejected the offer and backed out. However, the pilot project’s target of adding 1,25,000 interns will be achieved as more than 6,20,000 applications were received by the time the registration window closed.
Lessons learned from the pilot project
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs will keep these problems in mind before expanding the scheme. An officer has said that we have learned an important lesson from the pilot project that there is no dearth of interested candidates, but many non-serious applicants may reject the offer at the last moment. In such a situation, the government and companies will have to be prepared for this challenge during the expansion of the scheme.
Formal launch of the scheme soon
However, the formal launch of the scheme may happen by the end of this month. At present, the candidates of the first batch have started their internship from Monday and soon other batches will also become a part of it. This scheme was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the July budget. Its objective is to provide internship opportunities to 10 million youth in 500 top companies in the next 5 years, so that their employability can be boosted.
Major companies of the country joined
Major companies like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Jubilant Foodworks have become part of this pilot project. Keeping in mind the challenges faced in the initial phase of the scheme, work will be done to make the process of its expansion more effective and comprehensive.
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