For a Jammu undergraduate who dreams of running their own venture one day, the summer just offered a concrete first step. The Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) has been running its Summer Internship Programme 2026 in batch after batch, and the latest phase saw 240 students from colleges across Jammu division complete the training at the institute's Jammu campus.
The programme is structured to reach students where they are. Of the recent cohort, around 200 attended six batches at JKEDI's Regional Office in Bari Brahmana, while a further group trained at the District Centre in Jammu — seven batches in all, spread to make participation practical for undergraduates from different colleges.
Ten days, sixty hours, real startup skills
Each internship runs as a 10-day, 60-hour programme, designed in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020's emphasis on experiential, skill-based learning. Interns are exposed to entrepreneurship development, startup promotion, innovation and business planning, and the institutional support mechanisms available to aspiring entrepreneurs in J&K.
Crucially, it is not a lecture series. Students learn through interactive sessions, practical assignments and direct interaction with experts, coming away with entrepreneurial knowledge, leadership competencies and problem-solving skills — the toolkit you need to move from 'I have an idea' to 'here is my plan'. The sessions are facilitated by JKEDI faculty and resource persons acting as trainers, mentors and coordinators, under Director Mohammad Younis Malik and Joint Director Chand Kishor Sharma.
Why it matters for young Jammu
Youth unemployment is a real pressure in the region, and entrepreneurship is one of the few paths that lets young people create jobs instead of only competing for them. Programmes like this one demystify the process — funding, planning, the government schemes that exist to back first-time founders — and connect students to the institution that can help them take the next step.
With multiple batches running through the summer and hundreds of students already trained across phases, JKEDI's internship has quietly become one of the most accessible on-ramps to entrepreneurship for Jammu's college-goers.
The value goes beyond the certificate. JKEDI is the state's nodal agency for entrepreneurship, and the same institution that trains you also administers self-employment and startup support schemes — so an internship here is also an introduction to where a first-time founder can actually go for mentoring and finance. For a student who leaves college unsure whether a job or a venture is the right path, ten days of structured exposure can be the nudge that makes the choice concrete. Students interested in future batches should watch JKEDI's announcements and check with their college placement or skill cells for enrolment details.
Sources: JK Monitor; Greater Kashmir.
