Internship offer letter format: what it must say, with a sample

What is an internship offer letter, and how is it different from other internship letters?

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Internship Policy: Guidelines and Procedures puts the offer at Step 2: the host confirms the slot "via Confirmation Letter/ Email", and a student who found the place alone submits that confirmation to the Training and Placement office through the department. The offer letter is that confirmation.

Search for an internship letter format and you meet several different documents. You write the application before any offer; the application letter and email samples cover that one. Your college may write a request letter (the policy's Format 2 is one) and, where needed, a no-objection letter. After you join, the policy's Step 3 asks for a joining report, and Step 6 asks for a training certificate from the host.

An apprenticeship under the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) is set up differently: the host creates a contract on the NATS portal and the student accepts it there. The scheme's student FAQ says a contract not accepted within 15 days is "marked auto-rejected" and cannot be accepted again, so watch the portal as well as your email.

Of the letters in that chain, the offer is where the host states, before any work starts, what it has promised. Internshala's terms, for one, treat a stipend in the offer letter lower than the one advertised as a breach by the employer.

What must an internship offer letter say, field by field?

A usable offer letter carries the host's full address and a contact, your role and duties, start and end dates, hours per week, whether it is paid or unpaid, the stipend and how it is paid, and your supervisor's name. Internshala's employer terms, AICTE Format 3 and IIITDM's Form P4 each ask for part of it.

Internshala's terms for employers on that platform say that, once an applicant is hired, the employer must give "an offer letter clearly detailing all the important details of the Job (such as role & responsibilities, remuneration, and payment mechanism) and complete address and contact details". That is a platform's contract with its employers. Outside that platform it binds nobody, but it is a sensible floor.

The AICTE policy's Format 3 is sometimes passed around as an offer letter format. It is a different document: an agreement "written by the student in consultation with the faculty Mentor and Industrial supervisor". Use it as a checklist, because its first part asks for the supervisor's name and title, the internship address, beginning and ending dates, "Hours per Week" and whether the internship is paid or unpaid.

Field in the letter	What it should say	Who asks for it
Organisation and contact	Legal name, complete address, a phone number and an email on its own domain	Internshala terms; AICTE Format 3, Part I
Role and duties	A title plus two or three lines on the actual work	Internshala terms; AICTE Format 3, Part III
Dates	An exact start date and end date	AICTE Format 3; IIITDM Form P4
Hours	Hours per week, or the daily timing	AICTE Format 3
Money	Paid or unpaid; if paid, the amount, the period it covers and how it will be paid	Internshala terms; AICTE Format 3; IIITDM Form P4
Supervisor	A named person, designation and contact	AICTE Format 3; IIITDM Form P4
Mode and place	Office address or "online"	AICTE Format 3 (internship address)
Ending early	Who can end or change it, and that notice must be in writing	AICTE Format 3, Part IV
Pre-placement offer	Whether one is offered, and on what basis	IIITDM Form P4 asks if you hold one

The IIITDM Kancheepuram Form P4 for a long-term internship is a good test of whether your letter is complete. It asks for the duration "From" and "To", "Stipend Amount (if any)" and the "External Guide/Mentor Name & Designation" with a phone and email. If your letter cannot fill those boxes, your college form will stay half blank. For the hours line, read the guide to the hours you agree before you start.

If your letter carries clauses on termination, notice period or a pre-placement offer (PPO), read them as terms you are agreeing to. Internshala's terms, for employers on that platform, say it "always recommends employers to terminate the internship/job within 15 days if the candidate's performance is unsatisfactory". That is the platform's recommendation to its own employers.

If a confidentiality or work-ownership clause appears, ask in writing what it covers before you sign.

A PPO line matters to your college as well. IIITDM's Form P4 asks whether you have a pre-placement offer from the company, and IISc's placement rules require its students to disclose any existing PPO to its placement office, OCCaP. Both are those institutes' own rules. If the letter promises a PPO, get the basis for it in writing; a line saying you "may" receive one promises nothing.

What should an offer letter never ask you for?

An offer letter should never ask you to pay. Internshala's terms list "test fee, security deposit, documentation fee" as forms of charging money that are "strictly prohibited" for employers posting there. The rule binds only employers on Internshala, yet a letter carrying any of those charges fails it on its face.

The same company's safety page for students says "A genuine employer will never ask you to pay to get hired", and tells students to be cautious if asked for Aadhaar, PAN, bank details, OTPs or passwords early in hiring. Bank details for a stipend belong after you have accepted, sent through the organisation's own address. An OTP or password belongs to nobody else, at any stage.

A charge can hide inside a friendlier word: a kit, a laptop deposit, a refundable onboarding amount, a paid course to finish before joining. If a letter asks for money in any form, stop and read the guide on the internship fee scam before you reply.

Internship letter sample: an offer letter marked SPECIMEN

A complete offer letter runs in this order: host details, date, addressee, subject, role and duties, dates and hours, stipend and payment, supervisor, completion documents, a no-fee line and a reply deadline. Every name, date and figure below is a bracketed placeholder, the stipend is left blank, and there is no logo, signature or reference number.

It is a teaching sample and cannot serve as a letter from anyone.

SPECIMEN. NOT AN OFFER. NOT VALID FOR ANY PURPOSE.
[Organisation name], [Complete postal address], [Phone number], [Email on the organisation's domain]
Date: [Date of letter]
To: [Student's full name], [Course, year], [College name]
Subject: Offer of internship as [Role title]
Dear [Student's first name], following your application and interview on [Interview date], we are pleased to offer you an internship as [Role title] in our [Team or department].
Your work will include [Duty one], [Duty two] and [Duty three].
The internship runs from [Start date] to [End date], for [Number] hours a week, [Days and timing], [at office address / online].
Stipend: ____________ [amount and the period it covers, or the word Unpaid]. Paid by: ____________ [bank transfer or other method, and on what date].
Your supervisor will be [Supervisor's name], [Designation], [Supervisor's email and phone].
On completion you will receive [Certificate, and any report or evaluation the host sends to your college].
There is no fee, deposit or charge of any kind for this internship.
Please confirm acceptance by replying to [Email] before [Deadline date].
[Name of person issuing the offer], [Designation]
SPECIMEN ONLY. No real organisation, student or internship is described.

A real letter from a real host will be worded its own way. Check that each line above has a real counterpart in yours, with a fact in it you could confirm by email or phone.

What will your college ask for once you have the offer?

Your college will want a copy of the offer with a permission request before you join. The University Grants Commission's (UGC) 2023 Guidelines for Internship/Research Internship for Under Graduate Students say that "On receipt of an offer of internship, the student will arrange to consult the internship supervisor, obtain due permission from the parent institution". Each college sets its own form.

Three published examples show the range. At IISc, students taking an internship through its placement office, OCCaP, must "submit a formal request for permission to the Dean" with "a copy of the offer letter", endorsed by the faculty advisor and department chairperson. GPREC's final-semester undertaking says "Please find enclosed the offer letter/email communication from the company" and needs a parent's consent. IIITDM's Form P4 lists the offer letter as its first enclosure.

GPREC's undertaking adds a leave rule of its own: for genuine reasons a student may seek leave from the company, and must promptly report it by email to the Internal Supervisor, a GPREC faculty member.

These are single-college rules, and yours may differ. Ask your department which form it uses before you accept, and whether it also wants a no-objection letter, which is a separate document (see the guide to NOC letters for internships).

How do you accept, or ask for a missing detail first?

Reply in writing, from the email address you applied with, and ask for anything missing before you say yes. UGC's 2023 guidelines describe the host informing the intern "through the portal itself or through the mail" and asking "for confirmation or for acceptance", so an email reply is the normal channel.

A short request works: thank them, say you intend to accept, and list the fields you need filled, for example the end date, hours per week, whether a stipend is paid and when, and your supervisor's name. Ask for a revised letter or a written reply. Your college form will need these in writing anyway.

If the letter asks for a signed copy, sign and return it the way it asks, and keep your own copy with the emails around it. Internshala's safety page tells students to "Always keep a copy of your offer letter and written communication so you have a clear record of the agreed terms."

Treat an emailed acceptance as a commitment. IISc's placement rules, for students on its own placement process, say an offer communicated by email "will be treated as a firm and binding offer", and a student withdrawing after acceptance must write to the company at least three months before joining or by 31 March, whichever is earlier. Other colleges set their own rules; read yours.

AICTE Format 3 puts changes in writing too: that agreement "may be terminated or amended by student, faculty coordinator or work supervisor at any time upon written notice, which is received and agreed to by the other two parties". If a detail changes after you accept, get the change in writing too.

How does a college or employer check the letter and the certificate after it?

Under the AICTE policy the check runs through the host: a faculty member evaluates you once or twice "by visiting the Industry/Organization", the host provides a training certificate at Step 6, and the Training and Placement Cell then lists the students who completed. A careful checker calls the host on a number found independently of your letter.

GPREC asks the HR person or supervisor to sign and date the relieving letter, which you then scan and email to the Head of Department, and it later wants an attendance report, the completion certificate, the diary and the report. UGC's guidelines have the institution's internship supervisor "monitor the regularity of the intern" and ensure completion certificates are issued.

The dates, role and supervisor in the offer are the same details your end-of-internship report opens with; the guide to internship report format, with a sample takes it from there.

An employer reading your CV later may never ask for the offer letter. The certificate is the paper they are more likely to see, and the named signatory is the person they can call. A letter or certificate is worth only the work behind it: if you cannot describe what you did, week by week, no paper will carry the interview for you. When you list it, the guide to resume format for an internship shows where the role and dates go.

To test an offer before you accept it, use the guide on how to verify an internship offer letter. For the document at the end, see what a genuine internship certificate contains.