Raul Delapena Setiawan
The landscape of Indian higher education is currently undergoing its most significant structural evolution in decades. With the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), the academic ecosystem has shifted from a purely theoretical framework to one that demands practical, industry-integrated experience. At the heart of this transition is the mandate for mandatory internships for all graduating students—a policy shift designed to catalyze employability but one that has simultaneously exposed a critical disconnect between academia and the corporate sector.
Sarang Wakodikar, Founder and Director of SETTribe, sits at the epicenter of this shift. In an exclusive discussion, Wakodikar outlines how his firm is navigating the complexities of a market defined by a surging demand for experiential learning and a lingering corporate reluctance to invest in entry-level talent.
1. Main Facts: The New Mandate for Indian Graduates
The Indian government’s latest education policy represents a seismic shift for the nation’s youth. Under the new guidelines, internships are no longer elective extracurricular activities; they are now a formal academic requirement, with students mandated to earn between 10 and 15 academic credits through professional placements.
This policy is designed to solve a persistent issue in the Indian labor market: the "employability gap." While millions of students graduate annually, a significant percentage lack the foundational skills required by the high-growth IT and service sectors. By institutionalizing internships, the government hopes to force a synchronization between university curricula and corporate needs. However, as Wakodikar points out, the policy has created a "supply-demand paradox." While there is an unprecedented surplus of students seeking internships to fulfill credit requirements, there is a distinct shortage of corporate entities willing to host these individuals, particularly in the tech space where the cost of onboarding and training "raw" talent is often viewed as a prohibitive expense.
2. Chronology: The Evolution of the Indian Internship Ecosystem
To understand the current crisis, one must look at the timeline of India’s transition from a degree-centric to a skill-centric economy:
- 2020: The Policy Announcement. The Indian government unveils the National Education Policy (NEP), signaling a move toward holistic, multidisciplinary, and skill-based education.
- 2021–2022: The Academic Pivot. Universities begin restructuring their internal bylaws to accommodate mandatory credit-based internship programs, creating immediate pressure on students to secure placements.
- 2023: The Industry Bottleneck. As the first wave of NEP-compliant batches approaches graduation, the lack of corporate readiness becomes evident. IT firms, struggling with global economic volatility, retreat from aggressive entry-level hiring.
- 2024–2025: The Emergence of Intermediaries. Startups like SETTribe emerge to act as the "connective tissue" between the university and the enterprise, creating structured internship frameworks that mitigate the risks for employers.
3. Supporting Data: The Skills Deficit and Market Realities
The challenges faced by graduates are backed by sobering statistics. Industry reports consistently indicate that while India produces over 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, less than 25% are considered "industry-ready" upon graduation.
Wakodikar notes that the IT sector, historically the largest employer of fresh graduates, has become increasingly risk-averse. The "cost of training"—which involves mentorship time, infrastructure usage, and the risk of low-quality output—is often viewed as a liability rather than an investment.
- Credit Weightage: The 10–15 credit requirement represents roughly 10% to 15% of a student’s total degree progress.
- The IT Gap: Despite the demand for AI, cloud, and cybersecurity talent, companies are hesitant to host interns because they fear that students lack the foundational programming proficiency to contribute meaningfully to production environments.
- The SETTribe Model: By standardizing the internship experience, SETTribe aims to reduce the "onboarding drag" that companies face, effectively transforming an intern from a training cost into a productive asset within weeks, rather than months.
4. Official Responses and Strategic Vision: Insights from SETTribe
Sarang Wakodikar defines his company’s role as a strategic bridge. "The market is currently fragmented," Wakodikar explains. "Students are desperate for the credits, and universities are scrambling to find hosts. But the corporate sector is looking for immediate value. Our objective is to bridge this by providing a framework that ensures the student is ‘market-ready’ before they even step into the office."
Wakodikar’s perspective emphasizes that the problem isn’t a lack of talent, but a lack of structured transition. SETTribe works to curate internships that are not merely "shadowing" experiences but active learning modules where students are tasked with solving real-world problems. By providing students with technical mentorship and soft-skills training, the firm lowers the barrier for employers.
"We don’t just place students," says Wakodikar. "We prepare the ecosystem. When a company engages with our network, they aren’t getting an intern who needs to be taught how to code from scratch; they are getting a candidate who has been vetted and trained against industry-standard benchmarks."
5. Implications: What Lies Ahead for the Industry
The implications of this shift are profound for both the Indian economy and the global tech sector.
The Shift to "Just-in-Time" Talent
If successful, the NEP mandate will force companies to rethink their talent pipeline. Instead of relying on lateral hiring (poaching experienced talent from competitors at high costs), firms will be incentivized to build their own talent pools from the ground up through internship-to-hire pipelines.
The Rise of the "Upskilling" Economy
The demand for intermediary platforms will skyrocket. If universities cannot bridge the gap, private entities and EdTech platforms will inevitably fill the void. This creates a secondary market for skill-verification services, where certificates of completion are replaced by portfolios of verified work.
The Global Perspective
India’s move to mandate internships could serve as a model for other emerging economies facing similar youth unemployment challenges. By linking academic progression to professional experience, India is effectively conducting a massive social experiment in human capital development. If the model proves that interns can contribute value early in their careers, it could fundamentally alter the global IT service delivery model, making India an even more cost-efficient and high-skilled destination for global tech operations.
Challenges to Overcome
Despite the optimism, significant hurdles remain. The quality of internships remains highly variable. Without strict regulation, there is a risk that "internship mills" will emerge, offering students credits for menial tasks that provide no genuine professional development. Wakodikar’s vision of a structured, high-standard internship ecosystem is the necessary antidote to this potential dilution of the policy’s intent.
Conclusion
The transformation of India’s education-to-employment pathway is in its early stages, but the trajectory is clear. The days of "degree-first, skills-later" are coming to an end. Leaders like Sarang Wakodikar are not merely adapting to this change; they are actively shaping the mechanisms by which the next generation of Indian talent will integrate into the global workforce. As companies continue to navigate the friction between training costs and output requirements, the success of the new education policy will depend on the ability of platforms like SETTribe to prove that an intern can, and should, be a source of competitive advantage.
The mandate for internships is more than just a bureaucratic checkbox; it is a fundamental reconfiguration of the social contract between the Indian student and the corporate world. Whether this leads to a golden age of professional readiness or a period of chaotic adjustment remains to be seen, but for now, the transition is underway.
Neng Nana
Ammar Sabilarrohman
