INTERSHIP STIPENDS FALL

Internship, the first foray into the professional world for thousands of students, has taken a hard knock as the clouds of economic slowdown hang heavy.

The number of companies visiting campuses has dwindled sharply. Those dropping by are accepting fewer interns. Students, placement cells in B-schools as well as career counsellors say that the size of stipends has shrunk and pre-placement offers (PPOs) are hard to come by.

The going is rough even for students in top institutes. Says Shreya Sharma, a fourth year student at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, “Usually every one gets placed by December. But this year a lot of projects were put on hold and many diploma students are yet toKanika Pachauri, in her final year at New Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology, says the internship process usually begins in mid-November but this year kept getting postponed.“Companies we had approached earlier backed out last moment,” she says.

While each NIFT intern is paid Rs 10,000, they are getting about half of that.She finally got placed but explains how the game has changed. “While getting placed with the company they interned for was the norm, some interns have been categorically told that they will not be placed. My company hasn’t said anything. I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” she says.Business school officials too admit that the internship process has become more difficult. Chairman Anil Somani of Fostiima Business School says that the number of companies hiring has gone down by 60-70%. be placed.” She adds that while NID averages 50-60 companies at a placement do each year, this year only a fraction of that figure came to campus.

Till last year, at least 50% of the students got PPOs, this year, only 25% did. “Corporates are either delaying the joining date, reducing the package or going back on their commitment. The highest amount an intern got as stipend last year was Rs 30,000 per month but the highest this year is Rs 18,000,” says Somani.

Career counsellor Jayanti Ghose points out that stipends were never the ‘focus’ for interns. “For a long time the stipend was supposed to cover the cost of transportation and incidental expenses. In the last few years, when businesses were doing well, the stipends had become a focus for many students. Just as salaries have become more conservative and realistic with the slowdown, stipends have been affected likewise.”

And PPOs, she says, were rare in any case. In the final analysis, what counts is the experience. “There isn’t a very drastic impact on placement prospects in this aspect in the current scenario,” she says

Placement coordinator for IIT, Delhi, Kushal Sen agrees. “In any case, only about 20% of the students earn stipends and placement is preferred over a PPO as with a placement, the student can join any industry he likes whereas he has to intern with the industry he’s specifically training for,” he says.

Having interns in a company has its advantages. Sen and C S Venkataratnam of International Management Institute, point out, interns are very low cost to company.“All the company needs to do is assign some work to the students, put them on some project. And this is also the best way for the company to network,” says Sen.

Venkataratnam is confident that, despite the difficulties, his students will be placed by March.“It depends on the attitude of the company,” he observes, “Some companies are taking interns as they’re cheap labour. Also, because they are fresh, they can come up with creative solutions to complex problems.”