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All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has released student internship policy for engineering students, making it mandatory to undergo 600-700 hours of internship for BE/BTech and 450-500 hours for diploma courses. As per the report, a student has the option to either go for a full-time internship or pursue it part-time.
Here the main pointers from the policy released by AICTE:
Internship Duration and Academic Credentials
For a degree, 14-20 credits should be earned through the internship, 1 credit is equivalent to 40-45 hours of work. For a diploma, 10-14 credits should be earned. During 4th and 6th semester summer breaks, students can obtain credits for entrepreneurial activity/project work/seminar and inter/intra-institutional training. During the last semester, students may take project and seminar work as per the institution's curriculum. Any student who chooses suggestive activity program under AICTE approved institution, devotes 6 months and achieves significant goals, his credit requirement for the internship will be considered fulfilled.
Internship Guidelines for the Institution
The Training and Placement (T&P) cell in an institution will arrange internship for students after 2nd, 4th and 6th/7th semester as per AICTE affiliating university guidelines. The general procedure for arranging internship is:
Send a request letter from the college T&P cell to the industry to allot various slots of 4-6 during summer vacation as internship periods for students.
The industry will inform via email/ SMS/ post/ fax/ call regarding the available training slots and the number of seats allocated for internships.
Students should submit the joining report/ letters/email on joining training at the concerned industry.
A faculty member should visit the concerned industry to evaluate the performance of student undergoing internship, and an evaluation report should be submitted at TPO with consent from industry personnel.
Students will submit a training report after completion of the internship.
The training certificate is to be obtained from the industry.
Internship Guidelines for the Students
For allotment of internship slots, all students are required to submit a 'Student Internship Programme Application' before the prescribed date. The offer given by the company is to be accepted by the student irrespective of the company, job profile, job location or stipend offered. A student who voluntarily gives in writing that he/she does not require placement assistance from the institute will be exempted from participation in the placement activities. At the commencement of the session, some student volunteers will apply to work with the TPO. Among the volunteers, one student will be selected as ‘student coordinator’ who will be accountable to TPO and will be given significant responsibility.
Guidelines for Industry Offering Internship
The internship program should be designed keeping in mind the company’s requirement and student’s profile. It can be done in collaboration with the institute and follow the given guidelines:
Identify Goals
What does company want to achieve by hiring interns?
Finding new employees
Seeking technical help
Looking to provide a learning and rewarding experience.
Pre-internship planning for the Company
What are the perks you are offering?
Do you have adequate workspace?
What sort of academic background you seek from your interns?
Who will be responsible to guide and mentor the interns?
What task will be assigned to interns?
What are the possible outcomes you desire to see?
Managing the Intern
Orientations of interns
Provide them the required resources
Introduction to the technical team
Monitoring intern’s progress everyday
Give them regular feedback and monitoring
Weekly supervision meeting to help them improve.
Internship Report
Student’s diary and internship report should be submitted by student along with attendance record and evaluation sheet duly signed and stamped by the industry to the institute after the completion of training. It would be evaluated on the basis of:
Regularity and sincerity in the maintenance of daily diary log
Adequacy and quality of the information recorded
Information processes
Data, drawing and sketches recorded
The thought process and recording techniques used
After completion of the training, the student should prepare a comprehensive report explained what he/she observed and learnt during the training period. The training report should be signed by the Internship Supervisor, TPO, and Faculty Mentor.
The internship report will be evaluated on the basis of:
Originality
Adequacy and purposeful write-up
Organisation format, language, data, drawing, sketches, style, etc
Learning experience
Practical applications of the theory and concept taught in class.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Intern
It will be done in three stages:
Evaluation by Industry – On the basis of punctuality, eagerness to learn, skill test, and maintenance of daily dairy.
Evaluation by Faculty Supervisor – On the basis of site visit.
Evaluation by Institute- On the basis of seminar, viva-voce and training report.
Application Formats
AICTE has also released several formats that students can follow while applying for internships, sending request letter, maintaining a daily diary log, preparing an internship report, and so on. Similarly, formats have been released to be used by industries and institutions for relieving letter, student evaluation report, and experience certificates. You can find different formats and tables given below:
Format 1- Student Internship Program Application
This is the first form you need to fill before you start your internship. It is mainly a fact-based form, and you need to ensure that all the details are filled in correctly and clearly. Once filled, you need to submit it at the TPO or Internship Program Coordinator at your institution. In addition to your details, you will also need to ask for a signature from the faculty internship coordinator mentioning that you have submitted all the required documents and attended orientation for a successful beginning of the internship.
NOTE- For registered users at SwitchIdea, all the application formats and templates are available to download at the Resources section. One click is all you need to download the format you need as well as step-by-step guidance on filling the application.
Format 2 - Request Letter from Institute to Internship Provider
This is the form sent by the TPO of an institute to the internship provider asking them to provide 4-6 weeks of internships for its students. In the form, the institution sends the list of students they want to send for an internship in the given organisation.
Also, if you wish to intern in an organisation that is not your institute’s internship partner, you ask to request your TPO to send the request letter on your behalf.
You can download the Request letter format from the institute to the internship provider here.
Format 3 - Objectives/Guidelines/Agreement: Internship Synopsis
It is one of the most important formats. While most applications were written either at the beginning or completion of the internship, this is written during the tenure of the internship and in consultation with the faculty mentor. It has four different parts, each with different objectives:
Part 1- It contains the contact information of the student, internship supervisor and faculty member. The Academic Credit Information of the student is also filled by the ‘Internship Supervisor’ in this section.
Part 2- It contains the information about Internship Objectives and the Learning Activities. Mention in measurable terms about the learnings, skills and knowledge you want to acquire during your course of internship and how you wish to achieve it. You will mention the discussions, practical application of technical expertise, reports, seminars and everything else you will do during the internship. Include deadline dates here.
Part 3- Write about the Internship here. Mention about the job description and your contribution to the organisation as well as about the supervision you need at the job. Include details about when and by whom your performance will be an evaluation
Part 4- It is the agreement section where the internship agreement can be amended or terminated by a student, faculty member or internship supervisor at any point of time by a written notice
You can download the form here.
Format 4 – Relieving Letter of the Student
This is the letter that your educational institution will send to the industry allowing you to undergo training for the given period. This letter is to be submitted at the company you are undergoing training at the commence of the internship tenure. The faculty mentor will fill the form based on your performance and hand over the letter to you at the completion of the internship which you have to submit back at your institute then. This is an essential document as it doubles up as an experience certificate implying that you have undergone the training and have fared well in it.
You can download the form here.
Format 5 – Student’s Daily Dairy/Daily Log
Ever since AICTE has made internship mandatory, it has also made stringent guidelines that a student must follow during the internship duration. Maintaining a daily diary or daily log of the work done during the internship is one of them. In addition to maintaining the time of entering and departure, you should also clearly write in pointers about what you have learned or done in a given day. Make it as useful and detailed as possible. Including diagrams, tables and pictures to put across your point will provide you with added points.
You can download the Student’s Daily Log format here.
Format 6 - Supervisor Evaluation of the Intern
Through this form, your supervisor will rate you based on your performance. It is more like measurable ratings of your learning, behaviour, passion, skills, personality, punctuality, etc.
You can download the form here.
Format 7 – Student’s Feedback on the Internship
Through this form, the student can emphasise on the good points of the internship, such as how good was the internship, how cooperative were the mentors, were you able to accomplish your goals, etc. Besides, the student can also write feedback about the areas where he/she thinks that there is a scope for improvement.
Download the Student Feedback on the Internship form here.