Covid 19: B-schools defer summer internships as companies unable to on-board

Top business schools including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are deliberating the thought of deferring student internships, which were scheduled to take place in April, to as late as October-November amid the lockdown.

 

Top business schools including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are deliberating the thought of deferring student internships, which were scheduled to take place in April, to as late as October-November amid the lockdown in several parts of the country by the spread of Covid-19. As per the officials and human resource heads of companies, B-school managements were deliberating the options available with host companies. An interruption in internships may have a bad impact on student placements since most firms offer students full-time positions basis internships (pre-placement offers or PPOs).

Some of the prominent IIMs, such as those in IIM Kozhikode and Ahmedabad, have urged the firms to be more elastic in providing virtual projects. However, internships are not likely to begin next month as many companies are in a firefighting mode. MBA students are meant to finish an eight-week industry internship in summer when students go to companies and work on projects. Firms take in interns and after going through their work for the two months, offer them a pre-placement job opportunity. During the final placements, many companies do not recruit from campuses.

A deferment in student internships will also compel the institutes to alter their class schedules. Human resource heads informed that companies were busy finding out how to uphold day to day functioning. With the bulk of the staff working from home, getting summer interns to work on projects will not be conceivable until some constancy is reached. According to IIM Ahmedabad, some recruiters had adapted their internship model to a virtual (remote working) mode while other firms had written to the institute concerning a delayed internship start date. The institute also urged probable recruiters to treat student interns on a par with employees in terms of policies and to allow them to work from home and take their accord for work-related travel.

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