Govt plans fresh pilot for PM Internship scheme as candidate dropouts remain high

New Delhi: The government will likely roll out one more phase of its pilot project in a month before launching an expanded version of the PM Internship scheme later this fiscal, people aware of the details said.

Given that internship offers finally accepted by candidates are only about a third of those made by companies in the first two phases, the corporate affairs ministry recently wrote to state governments, urging them to hold career counselling and awareness camps across their jurisdictions, along with executives of participating companies, to encourage candidates to take advantage of the scheme, one of the people told ET.

Various workshops, seminars and promotional campaigns, both online and offline, besides sensitisation campaigns at various industrial training and technical educational institutions are also being undertaken.

The second phase of the pilot will likely conclude this week.

In the first phase, only 8,700 candidates had joined, out of 28,000 who had accepted the offers.

In the second phase, companies made 72,000 internship offers to candidates until July 23, of which 22,800 were accepted by them, official data showed. The final tally of those accepting the offers will likely go up to 28,000-29,000 in the current phase, the people said.

Despite a large number of applications and internship opportunities extended by companies, many candidates backed out even after accepting the offers, citing parental as well as peer pressure behind them applying under the scheme. Similarly, absence of adequate and affordable stay facility near the place of internship has been cited by most candidates for not joining.