NITI Aayog and IBM today announced a first-of-its-kind internship programme for students selected by Atal Innovation Mission (AIM).

The internship will see 38 students receive a two-week paid internship, and 14 teachers from Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) across the length and breadth of the country including from states such as Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and others, to come together and ideate, collaborate and innovate.

These students will be equipped with the skills for new collar careers in areas like artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, cybersecurity, cloud computing and blockchain. Apart from being trained in emerging technologies, students will also be coached in critical workplace skills. 

As part of the program, select teachers from ATLs will also be trained by IBM volunteers and mentors to become innovation coaches. The two-week program is designed so students can experience the corporate environment and gain exposure to new technologies. To scale the programme, top-performing students are selected for industry exposure to strengthen their technical skills and prepare them for future jobs.

The Atal Innovation Mission conducted the Atal Tinkering Marathon in 2017 where Top 30 innovations across five focus areas - agritech, healthcare, smart mobility, clean energy, waste management, water management - were identified as the top innovations.

Students from the Top 30 teams have since been offered various opportunities like the Student Innovator Programme, the ATL Bootcamp with industry partners, opportunity to participate in global innovation contests like World Robot Olympiad (WRO), and an internship opportunity with IBM India at their Bengaluru campus.

 The IBM internship program is focussed on enhancing the skills of the students via various innovative activities like design thinking approach, developing prototypes and solution for community issues and to solve them.

Industry-tailored internship programme combining emerging-technology training with workplace skills and teacher innovation coaching for students. NITI Aayog's Atal Innovation Mission and IBM India launched an industry-tailored internship programme delivering short paid corporate internships for students from Atal Tinkering Labs and training select teachers as innovation coaches, combining hands-on exposure to emerging technologies and workplace skills with design-thinking and prototype development to address community issues.