New Delhi, April 30: Engineering students will from now on have to undergo a mandatory period of internship to gain practical experience, a decision prompted by industry complaints about the poor employability of BTech graduates.

Internship will be mandatory for the fresh batches that secure admission this summer, while universities will be free to prescribe internship also for the students already admitted, an All India Council of Technical Education official said.

The universities will decide the duration of the internships on the basis of the requirements of the individual courses, with the council only stipulating that the period be between a month and a semester.

The internships can be done at any time starting from the second year of the programme and must be completed before the campus placements, which usually take place in the fourth year.

It's unclear whether a student will be allowed to do his internship in a place distant from the institution, or how he would be able to attend his classes during the internship even if he is in the same city.

However, the decision on mandatory internships does not apply to the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology, over which the council has no authority.

The council on Friday signed an agreement with the internship and training platform Internshala, which will enable the students of all council-affiliated colleges find internships free of cost.

Some 40,000 employers now use Internshala, which offers more than four lakh internships every year.

"Internships will make the students industry-ready before they step out of college," council chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe said.

"This will expose the students to the work environment, helping them hone their professional skills, including technical, managerial and communicational skills."

Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar had told the Rajya Sabha in March that only 40 per cent of engineering graduates were employable.