AICTE Partners with Pega to Launch National AI Internship Programme for Engineering Students

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has partnered with enterprise AI software company Pegasystems to launch a nationwide virtual internship programme aimed at preparing engineering students for an AI-first workforce.

Announced at Pega’s flagship event, PEGAInnovate, the National Internship Program (NIP) is a five-week, fully virtual initiative delivered in collaboration with AICTE and SmartBridge Educational Services. The programme introduces students to enterprise AI technologies such as generative AI, agentic engineering, workflow automation, and enterprise transformation.

The launch comes as India continues to grapple with an AI skills gap despite producing one of the world’s largest engineering talent pools. According to Pega, the internship is designed to bridge the gap between academic learning and enterprise requirements by offering hands-on projects, virtual instructor-led sessions and mentorship from industry experts.

Within just 10 days of opening registrations, the programme attracted more than 10,000 registrations, eventually expanding to nearly 75,000 students across over 1,500 colleges nationwide.

Participants will receive practical exposure to technologies including Pega Blueprint, the company’s generative AI-powered application development platform, alongside agentic AI and workflow automation. Dedicated Pega mentors and senior executives will conduct sessions to familiarise students with enterprise AI use cases and career opportunities within the Pega ecosystem.

The internship also serves as a precursor to Pega’s revamped University Academic Program (UAP), scheduled to launch in August with a new curriculum focused on AI and enterprise automation.

Explaining the motivation behind the initiative, Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Pega India, stated, “The volume of registrations in a single week tells us something important: students are not waiting to be handed enterprise AI skills; they are actively looking for a way in. NIP gives them that opportunity. It provides hands-on experience with technologies such as Pega Blueprint, AI-powered application development, agentic workflows, and automation.”

Unlike conventional internship programmes focused primarily on coding, Pega says the initiative aims to teach students how to build AI-enabled business solutions.

“A five-week programme cannot teach someone everything about enterprise software, and that was never the goal,” said Goutham Parcha, Vice President, Application Development, Pega India. “What we can do is shift how a student approaches a problem, moving them from writing code towards designing outcomes. That shift is exactly what agentic engineering demands of our own teams every day, and it is the instinct we want every NIP participant to walk away with.”

According to the company, the programme reflects a broader shift in enterprise software development, where engineers are increasingly expected to work alongside AI systems rather than simply write code. By exposing students to agentic AI, workflow automation and enterprise application development before they enter the workforce, Pega aims to build an AI-ready talent pipeline for India’s rapidly evolving technology sector.