CHENNAI: Aamina Rahim from Delhi did not travel every day for her internship on developing content. Rather, she visited the campus once a week and did majority of her work from home.“Visiting the office everyday can be quite difficult if the travel time is long and virtual internships help me make the most of college and help get the experience needed to build a good profile,” she says.Internships may not be confined to visiting offices for a month or two this summer. With companies and candidates looking for a longer association, virtual internships, which entail working from home on longer projects, are becoming common. Companies and candidates say that for content and social media-related jobs where the students’ physical presence is not mandatory, virtual internships do the trick. Portals say that close to 40% of requests come in for virtual internships. “Companies see a longer association with interns for roles that don’t require a constant presence in the office premises,” says Sarvesh Agarwal , co-founder, Internshala .“Candidates from far-flung areas and tier-2 cities like Bhubaneswar, where availability of quality offers is low, can take up internships with companies in the metros. We saw a 100% growth in number of applicants for virtual internships and such internship receive three times more applications since the scope is broadened,” he says. Startups mostly prefer virtual internships since there is a constraint of office space for them. “Tools like Skype , Google Drive and Docs, Hangout and Facebook groups for the team come handy to streamline workflow and information flow,” Agarwal says.Even as interest for virtual internships rise, the need to keep in touch with the workplace still exists. Rashima Gomber, who heads product management at Naukri-acquired Ambition Box, says that for tech-based roles, presence in the office is a must, whereas for managing content, going virtual works better. “Plus, it is difficult to understand the resources and their working ways within a span of two months and sometimes projects last longer. So, virtual internships come in for longer associations of 4 months and flexible work timings help,” she says.