From our school days, we can relate that to learn “Earth is geoid in shape”, we had to repeat and revise it many times. We saw a miniature globe and thought, “Oh! So, this is what a geoid is”, but if you have seen a door, bicycle, or any mechanical object many times at your home, then you already know what a “nut and bolt is” before it is taught. You are confident and get it at once with no pressure.
Which method of learning do you find fast, smooth, and accessible?
Of course, you don’t need to learn “this is a nut and bolt”, but you need practical experience through internships & understand how important is internship for engineering students.
Gaining professional, industry-ready training in a classroom is impossible. Won’t it be best to learn all you need through first-hand industry experience and your studies?
When applying to jobs as a fresher or starting work on your ideas for a startup, prior job experience is like icing on the cake. It improves your portfolio and skills and attracts your employers, investors, or partners to give you priority for the respective role. And it kick-starts your new career journey with appropriate experience and mastery.
For this reason, industries design internships in the manner of the latter method for their future would-be employees to gain hands-on experience in the skills and career of their choice in the field itself.
By the time you have finished your industrial training, you will already know how the industry works.
Key Takeaways
- Know what an internship is.
- Learn the importance of internships for engineering students.
- Read about ways to get internships in engineering.
What is an Internship?
An internship is a meaningful and practical hands-on experience program offered to a student by an organisation, industry, company, etc., for a period between 1 to 12 months. Working in the field helps the student better explore career opportunities on their own, learn new practical skills, become self-dependent, gain experience, and learn to fail fast and grow fast.
It is a zone of work where theory turns practical, and an industry-academia pipeline is built around the foundations of knowledge for a smooth transition of fresh talent to the company’s future employees.
The nature of the internship may vary according to job specifications, like a paid or unpaid internship, a work-from-home or an in-office or a hybrid internship, a public or private company’s internship, or a part-time or full-time internship.
The eligibility, nature and amount of duties, terms and conditions of work and pay, or certification type are pre-determined by the company, which are offered to the interns per the market standards.
In India, over 80% of engineering students remain employed immediately after graduation without industry training.
To create an efficient institution-industry interface, as per AICTE policy, it has become mandatory for engineering students in India to acquire six months of industrial exposure, as per the demand for future-ready skills.
Hence, let us first get acquainted with the benefits an engineering student can gain by pursuing internship programs during or after his/her graduation.
The Importance of Internship for Engineering Students
- It definitely facilitates getting better career prospects after graduation. Many companies themselves offer jobs to their intern students after graduation.
- Internships lay down the paved path to gain real-time knowledge acquisition and achieve practical skill goals, required exposure to a professional working environment and appropriate feedback for being future-ready for your job.
- Can learn how to handle responsibilities, gain leadership skills, acquire soft skills like communication skills, and familiarise yourself with company culture like formal dressing, professional language, punctuality, etc. It boosts your enthusiasm by learning from the company employees in a workplace setting.
- The students can gain from socialising and networking. It helps them to learn about new company concepts and gain recommendations or testimonies for potential career opportunities.
- For companies, it helps inject new enthusiasm into the workplace and accelerates new ideas into the industry. This is the best way to absorb creativity and new developments in the market for the advancement of people.
- You may find new interests and opportunities that you find interesting after experiencing the work first-hand.
The most important highlight query on the topic of engineering internships is actually landing an internship offer. Let us know more about it in the section below.
How to Get Internships in Engineering?
- If you are an undergraduate, then the best way to search internship is by checking if the college has any liaisons with companies on campus to offer such opportunities.
- Start applying for internships in your second year through contacts, campus drives, and online internship opportunities. Apply during summer vacations as well; the sooner, the better to learn new skills and build a strong portfolio.
- If you are an undergraduate or fresher who wants to get experience credits for your resume, then first ask around with your friends, family, or for off-campus drives. The people around you from the same field of education must have already been through this path, so they can guide you properly.
- Ask for their experience or procedures. Everybody loves to help and share their experience and expertise. Try to ask for first-hand experience from people around you or learn about such experiences online. People share their experiences online as well.
- Learn more about how they got the internship, what they had to prepare, what the interview procedure was, and so on. Get acquainted with the work culture, internship roles and opportunities the company provides the interns.
- Enquiring around with your contacts may get you to find out about the positions in and around their workplace, the workspaces of their contacts, or the websites or mediums they applied for during their engineering training.
- All public and private companies offer internships or training programs to undergraduate engineering students. Apply directly by sending your resumes to the career opportunities section in Public Sector Units (PSUs) like BHEL, NTPC, BARC, ISRO, etc. or to private companies that offer paid or free internships like PepsiCo, Intel, TCS, etc.
- If you couldn’t get selected by one of the big companies or want to learn any latest in-demand skills that these companies do not provide for an internship, then there are best internship courses offered by startups or online platforms, where they provide updated verified internship courses to hone your skills which can be paid at minimal prices.
- A few good websites to apply for paid but quality internship programs from where you can learn market-ready skills and finish certified projects are Internshala, Verzeo, or apply for certified internship offers at LinkedIn, Udemy, etc.
Also Read: Best Full-Time Paid Internships For Engineering Students
Conclusion
A World Economic Forum (WEF) report says that in India, the conversion rate of employment of engineering students is only one in five.
This research marks the importance of the need to get the students prepared and trained, along with the theoretical knowledge for future-ready skills.
Learning these technical and managerial skills at the internship programs, from the prospective industry itself, and gaining credits for your mark sheet, will help you sail through the journey from being a student to being part of the workforce very organic and pleasant.
So, enrol yourself in a quality certified internship program as soon as possible. Let us know about your internship experience, and leave feedback in the comment section below.
Know More About: Internships In Web Development
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is one internship enough for engineering?
As per AICTE policy, it is mandatory to finish 600–700 hours of internship or training programs for engineering undergraduates. So the number of internships can be extended to two or three. A student must earn 14–20 credits through internships, project work, entrepreneurial activity, etc.
Is an internship necessary for B Tech?
Yes, internship or project work or industrial training or entrepreneurial activities are compulsory for an engineering undergraduate as per AICTE policy for colleges and universities.
What do I do if I didn’t get an internship?
A few good websites to apply for paid but quality internship programs from where you can learn market-ready skills and finish certified projects are Internshala, Verzeo, or apply for certified internship offers at LinkedIn, Udemy, etc.
Do most interns get hired?
According to research on the impact of internships on the employment of engineering graduates, the job performance rates after internships increased by an average of 82% on different levels for success in the industry, and employability increased to 53% after internship.
