Blog: Of Interns and Apprentices

Sunday 7 January 2018

Of Interns and Apprentices

Times of India ( 07 Jan ) carries following news report :

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/to-stay-lean-startups-lean-on-interns/articleshow/62400158.cms

“ To Stay Lean , Startups Lean On Interns “

Extract :

· According to Internshala, a platform that helps students land internships, around 85% of all organisations registered with it are startups. The platform placed around 1 lakh interns in 2017. More than 46,000 startups have used Internshala to post their requirements since 2010, and the number has been growing every year. In 2013, just over 1,000 startups required interns, a number that crossed 18,000 last year.

· In its early days in 2014, regional content social platform Sharechat only recruited interns. "We were burning around Rs 4 lakh a month. We couldn't afford full-time employees so would rely on interns for everything. That helped us increase our capacities temporarily," says Farid Ahsan, founder of Sharechat. He has a team of more than 50 regular employees now.

· "Every startup is built by interns, including ours. Web application, content and branding, core business development...it was done with their help," he says, giving the example of the first person Internshala hired as an intern. "He now heads corporate relations with 15 people under him." Of Internshala's 70 regular employees in Gurugram, 55 were hired as interns.

· Interns contribute about 5% of the revenue share, according to founder Srikanth Iyer. Though not a huge chunk, it's significant enough to affect the business financials, he says.

· Lenskart too recruits about 50% of the interns hired every year . Lenskart hires around 12 interns a year, including management students from IIMs.

· For students, internships provide a chance to do impactful work while in college, and the freedom to pick up new skills and try new ideas. It gives young people confidence in their abilities as well as helps them decide if they want to be entrepreneurs or pursue more traditional roles.

· Since there is no legal contract binding them to one company, students can hold multiple internships at a time or move from one company to another easily.

· Internshala's Agrawal says the salary of an intern at a startup ranges from Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. Bansal is more generous: At Lenskart, interns get up to Rs 75,000 a month. As startups grow, the money doled out increases. "Eight years ago, this figure would have been Rs 5,000," Bansal says.

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In a “ Dog eat Dog “ economy,“ Profits “ is no more a dirty world . It is the “ Holy Grail “ – without which , nearly 90 % of the Start Ups close down within 5 years !

And , among the various “ means “ to achieve this “ end “, low “ Manpower Costs “ , is an important means . Hence the growing popularity of “ Internship “ for graduates , as can be seen from the above news report

But , out of some 12 million youth who join the workforce ( - join the ranks of unemployed ? ) , graduates constitute only 3.5 million . Rest 8.5 million are undergraduates or just 10^th Standard ( pass or fail )

If the Government can motivate the employers at large ( - and not just Start Ups ) to hire these 8.5 million as “ Apprentices “ , without burdening them with minimum wages , there is a good chance that they will get hired

To know the details of how this can be achieved , read :

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Skill Capital of the World ? [ 06 June 2016 ]

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/06/skill-capital-of-world.html

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