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HCD Apprenticeship Programme · For schools
Give your students a first taste of real work.
Host an apprenticeship intake, start an HCD Lab or a Future Career Lab, and bring industry-run labs and career clinics into school, with HCD Institute and DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad.
What your school can do
Four ways to start.
01
Host an intake
Your students join the summer or winter intake: a project in school, then an internship with a partner, online, offline or hybrid.
02
Start an HCD Lab
A design thinking lab inside your school, run by your own teachers after the Faculty Training Programme at DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad.
HCD Lab at School03
Start a Future Career Lab
A space where internships are hosted on campus. Partners bring briefs, mentors and tools; students work in a safe, familiar setting.
04
Invite an industry-run lab or chair
HCD works with its alumni and partners to set up labs, chairs or career clinics run by industry in your school.
Illustrative example · How an industry chair works
A materials company sponsors a chair in a school's Future Career Lab.
Design schools in India already work this way: an industry-sponsored chair lets students take on projects connected to that industry. We bring the same model into schools. Here's how a year could look for a company that makes building and packaging materials.
Set up
The chair
The company sponsors the chair: tools and materials for the lab, and a named mentor from its team.
Brief
A real problem
It sets a brief from its own industry, such as cutting packaging waste in the school canteen.
Project
Students design
Students research, ideate and prototype with design thinking, with HCD mentors and visits from the company.
Internship
Into the workplace
Students who want to go further take an online or hybrid internship with the company in the next intake.
Show
Jury and next year
The company sits on the end-of-cycle jury, and the chair sets a new brief for the following year.
How it works
From enquiry to first intake.
01
Talk to us
Tell us your board, grades and what you'd like to start.
02
Plan
We agree the format, the intake and the partners with you.
03
Prepare
Teachers are trained, consent forms go home and partners are briefed on safeguarding.
04
Run and review
Students work on projects and internships, then present their work at the end of the cycle.
Costs
What a school pays for.
Hosting an intake, starting an HCD Lab or a Future Career Lab carries a fee paid by the school. It depends on the plan: the internships and projects, any travel, and the mentors involved. Industry-sponsored chairs and CSR-funded places can reduce or cover it, and we share the fee for your school's plan before you commit.
First
A paid internship
We look for a paid internship first: a partner offers a stipend, and the listing says what it pays before you accept.
If not
A co-project with industry
Where no paid place is available, you work on a co-project with an industry partner. It carries a small fee to cover overheads.
Sometimes
Free and sponsored places
Some places are free, or sponsored through a partner's CSR or outreach programme.
Often
Certification
Many apprenticeships lead to a certificate on completing the work and the final review.
Child-safe by design
Safeguarding comes first.
- Learning, not employmentPlacements are structured learning experiences with a project and a mentor, in line with Indian law on children and adolescents.
- Consent firstStudents under 18 take part only with the consent of a parent or guardian and, where it applies, their school.
- Vetted partnersEvery partner organisation agrees to HCD Institute's child-safeguarding code before it can offer a place.
- Supervised settingsOffline placements for school students run in groups, at school, at DIC Hub or at partner sites with a named supervisor. Online sessions run on monitored, group channels.
- Age-appropriate workTasks, hours and formats are set for the student's age and stage, and reviewed by HCD mentors.
- A way to raise concernsStudents, parents and schools can reach HCD Institute directly at dic@hcd.institute at any time.
For schools
Start the conversation.
Tell us about your school. We'll reply within two working days.