Practical Training During the CS Course

Practical Training during CS course.

Know the ‘what’ and ‘how’.

If you are a CS (Company Secretary) student, along with learning and studying for the CS exams, you need to go through a number of training programmes to add to your skill-set for when you apply for jobs and step into the professional world. These trainings include:

1. Long Term Internship Programme or Practical or Articleship Training: This is a long term internship programme where you have to train under specified entities. The duration of the programme is of either one, two or three years depending on when the training commences. We will talk more about this later. You can also gain exemptions from this training depending on your work experience
2. Management Skills Orientation Programme (MSOP): The ICSI MSOP is a 15-day programme to be taken after completion of all training/exemptions from

In today’s blog, we’ll be focusing on CS Practical Training and what it has to offer and what you can expect.

What is CS Practical Training?

The CS Practical Training programme is a long term internship program where you train under one of the following entities:

• With a company having minimum paid up share capital of Rupees fifty lakhs
• With a Company Secretary in Practice
• With Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Registrar of Companies, Regional Directors, Official Liquidator, Banks, Law Firms, Consultancy Firms, Financial Institutions, LLPs, Government Bodies & Departments, PSU.

Note: You need to make sure that the Companies, Company Secretaries in Practice, and other organisations are registered with the Institute for imparting training.

Duration of CS Practical Training

Now, depending on when you start your practical training, the duration varies. The table below shows the breakdown:

Now, during the training, you will need to submit quarterly reports and project reports. Let's look at what those are.

Quarterly Report and Project Report

You need to submit a project report every 3 months during the training programme. This works out to be:

• 4 reports for the one year training programme
• 8 reports for the two year training programme
• 12 reports for the three year training programme

Also, at the end of your training, you will need to submit a final project report on any subject/topic assigned by your trainer. 

CS Practical Training Exemption

If you have undergone practical training equivalent to what the ICSI demands, then you can apply for exemption – partial or complete, depending on your experience. The maximum amount of exemption that you can claim is one year. You should have also cleared both groups of the CS Professional Exam.

The requirements are as follows (taken verbatim from the ICSI website):

• One year experience as an Assistant/Deputy Company Secretary or any other post higher thereto in the Secretarial Department or three years experience as a Secretarial Officer/Executive in Secretarial Department in any company or body corporate having a paid-up share capital and reserves of not less than rupees twenty-five lakhs or any organisation having gross fixed assets of not less than rupees fifty lakhs including any public sector undertaking, autonomous or statutory body, financial institution or bank which in the opinion of the Council provides scope for acquiring sufficient professional experience;
• two year’s experience as an executive or three years experience as an assistant under a Company Secretary in whole time practice or in a firm of such Company Secretaries, which in the opinion of the Council provides scope for acquiring sufficient professional experience;
• three years experience of continuous practice on a whole-time basis as a Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant having carried out statutory /cost /internal audit or providing management consultancy services or three years experience in continuous practice as an Advocate in a high Court having rendered services as Counsel/Advisor to a Company having paid –up share capital and services of not less than rupees twenty –five lakhs or any organisation having gross fixed assets of not less than rupees fifty lakhs including any public sector undertaking, autonomous or statutory body, financial institute or bank which in the opinion of the Council provides scope for acquiring sufficient professional experience;
• three years experience as an executive or four years experience as an assistant in the secretarial, administration, accounts, finance, personnel or legal department in any company or body corporate having a paid-up share capital and reserves of not less than rupees twenty five lakhs or any organisation having fixed assets of not less than rupees fifty lakhs including Central/State Government, any Public Sector Undertaking, autonomous or statutory body, financial institution , banking or insurance company which in the opinion of the Council provides scope for acquiring sufficient professional experience.

If you are eligible for exemption, fill up and submit a CS Practical Training Exemption form along with these documents

• Application Form for Management /Apprenticeship/ Practical Training/ Exemption from undergoing Training
• Experience Certificate (s) indicating exact designation, duration of service, salary drawn, job contents in brief duly signed by the appropriate authorised signatory of the employer organisation.
• Certified copy of Balance Sheet(s) in respect of the organisation(s).
• Organisation Chart indicating the position in the organisational hierarchy duly certified by the authorised signatory of employer organisation
• Salary slip for the beginning and last pay drawn from the organisation(s) 
• Appointment letter from past/present employer.

All these documents need to be duly dated, signed and certified by the employer as well as self-attested by you. If you have work experience in more than one company or body corporate, you should submit the complete set of the documents above pertaining to all companies you've worked for. Here are more details about the documents required. 

Stipend During CS Practical Training

During the CS Practical Training, you are entitled to a stipend that would cover your basic costs. The minimum stipend stipulated by ICSI is as follows:

Leave During CS Practical Training

You are entitled to two types of leave during your CS Practical Training period: Casual Leave and Study Leave. You are entitled to study leaves ONLY if you still have not cleared your exams i.e. if you are undergoing training after clearing your CS Professional exam, you are not eligible for any study leave; you can still avail casual leave. Also, if any Sundays or holidays fall during a continuous period of study leave, they will be counted as days part of the study leave; and any Sundays or holidays falling during a continuous period of casual leave will not be counted as days part the casual leave period. 

The following table shows the breakdown of leaves:

Note that you are entitled to only one casual leave for every month of training. At the end of the training period, any unused casual leaves will lapse. If you have taken leaves in excess of the entitlement, your training will be extended according to the number of days exceeded. 

The Need for CS Practical Training

Practical Training goes a long way when you take up work. It will give you exposure to the workplace and on the job requirements. It will help shore up your core subject areas and expertise. It’s going to aid you every step in the way in your journey to become a professional worth the name. If you wish to learn more about the different aspects of CS Practical Training, you can email us at support@learncab.com or comment down below. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Also, if you are looking for study material that will give you the flexibility in learning during your CS practical training, we invite you to sign up on our platform.

We hope this blog was helpful and we wish you all the best for your career!