23rd January 2024, New Delhi: Internshala, the leading career-tech platform, unveils critical insights for internship seekers, showcasing a substantial 200% increase in internship opportunities for Indian students over the past five years. The report highlights some key observations regarding the current internship market and what internship seeking students could expect from internship recruiters in the year 2024.
In 2023, business development and management took the lead, offering a significant 44% of all internships. This reflects a strong demand for profiles in sales, marketing, digital marketing, business development, customer support, and operations. Engineering followed at 20%, providing technology-focused internships in programming, AutoCAD, Civil, Web & App development. The media sector contributed 18%, offering diverse profiles such as creative writing, journalism, videography, photography, and PR. Design presented 5% of internship opportunities, while education and volunteering each held 3%. Finance and Data Science made valuable contributions at 2% and 1%, respectively.
A pivotal learning from the report is that 23% of internships offered pre-placement offers (PPOs) based on intern performance. Virtual internships accounted for a substantial 48%, offering work-from-home flexibility, while 42% remained in-office internships.
The average stipend in 2023 was 8,000 per month, with an impressive maximum stipend reaching 1,35,000 rupees per month. Internships varied in duration, ranging from 1 week to 6 months, averaging at 3.66 months.
Geographically, Delhi-NCR held the lion’s share at 34% internship openings, followed by Mumbai at 16%, Bangalore at 10%, Pune at 5%, Hyderabad and Jaipur at 3% each. This distribution indicates promising opportunities for aspiring students in these cities in 2024.
Examining hiring preferences, recruiters sought skills such as verbal/spoken English Proficiency which was asked in 15% of internships, MS Excel, Social Media Marketing, and Digital Marketing were key requirements in 4% internships each. Skills like SEO, Creative Writing, Adobe Photoshop, and MS Office were also a requirement for 3% internships each.
Among shortlisted applicants, 33% pursued a Bachelor’s in Technology (B.Tech), highlighting a strong inclination towards tech roles. Additionally, 23% were recent graduates, 22% were third-year students, and 19% were fourth-year students.
Employers also sweetened the deal for prospective interns with perks like internship certificates, letters of recommendation, flexible working hours, a five-day work week, informal dress codes, and complimentary snacks and beverages. These offerings made internship opportunities not only professionally enriching but also personally rewarding for the candidates.
On bringing out the Annual Internship Hiring Trends 2024, Sarvesh Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Internshala said, “Since 2010, Internshala has been on a mission of bringing awareness about internships and connecting the students with meaningful internship opportunities. While in the past 5 years, internship opportunities have seen a remarkable 200% growth that is, a 3x growth since 2018. With the consistent efforts made by stakeholders including students, recruiters, college faculties, parents, and platforms like Internshala, there has been a 1000x increase in the internship openings for Indian students in the past 10 years. This is a tremendous achievement for a rapidly developing nation like India. These insights are paving the path for an exciting future for the internship seekers in 2024.”
