Only 20% of candidates accepted PM Internship Scheme offers: data, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• The PM Internship Scheme (PMIS) pilot project exceeded its target of 1.25 lakh internship opportunities in a year.
• Companies made 1.65 lakh internship offers, but only 20% were accepted by applicants.
• Reasons for declining offers included location, roles, and duration of the internships.
• Of those who accepted, approximately 20% left their internships prematurely.
• The government initially budgeted ₹840 crore for the pilot project, later revised to ₹380 crore.
• The pilot project has utilized ₹73.72 crore so far.

Detailed Insights:

• The PMIS was announced in the Union Budget 2024 to provide internship opportunities to 1 crore youth in India's top 500 companies over 5 years.
• In the first round, companies posted over 1.27 lakh opportunities, receiving 6.21 lakh applications, with only 10.6% of offers accepted.
• The second round saw over 1.18 lakh opportunities posted and 4.55 lakh applications, with a 30% acceptance rate.
• High dropout rates indicate potential mismatches between candidate expectations and internship realities, requiring better alignment.
• Low acceptance and high dropout rates may impact the scheme's long-term success in enhancing youth employability and industry readiness.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Internship: A short-term work experience offered by organizations to provide students or recent graduates with practical exposure to the workplace.
• Employability: The skills, knowledge, and attributes that make a person able to gain and maintain employment.
• Union Budget: An annual financial statement presenting the government's proposed revenues and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year.