PM Internship Scheme: Only 6% of Students Take Up Offers as Demand Outpaces Placements

Despite high demand for PM internships, just 6% of students accept offers as placements fall short. Discover why this gap exists and what it means for graduates and firms.

PM Internship Scheme: Despite companies making over 1.53 lakh internship offers in the pilot phase, just over 50,000 candidates accepted the offers which is an acceptance rate of about 33%. However, out of these acceptances, only 8,700 candidates which is approximately 6% of the total recipients on offers, have officially joined their respective internships at companies so far. This indicates a major drop-off at the stage where accepted offers didn't translate into real-word participation.

The Prime Minister Internship Scheme is managed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In the first part of this program, the goal was to give 125,000 internship chances to young people across India in just one year. To make it easy, the government set up a simple online application process and a mobile app so students from anywhere in the country could apply. When the first round started, companies posted 127,000 internship positions. A lot of students were interested and 621,000 applications came in from 181,000 candidates. Out of these, companies offered 82,000 internships to more than 60,000 applicants. From these offers, 28,141 students said yes, but only 8,700 actually started their internships. This means that even though many students applied and were offered positions, very few ended up joining the companies.

A second round of the scheme began in January 2025. This time, companies opened up 118,000 internship positions in 735 districts, and they received 455,000 applications from 214,000 students. The process of giving out offers and students joining these internships is still happening, so we do not have final numbers yet.

The main problem is that many students who get an offer do not end up joining the company. The government thinks this could be because students might not be ready, or they may have trouble moving to a new place, or maybe the internship is different from what they expected. Even though the government has made it easy to apply and wants to help students get real job experience, the number of students who actually start interning is much lower than expected. This is something the government will need to look at closely as they try to make the program bigger in the future.

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