Internships Vs Trainings

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I'm in first year, should I do some training or shall I try for an internship? What recruiters actually value, internships or trainings? I am getting an internship with 1K stipend, shall I take it or shall I work hard to get a better opportunity?
These are some of the common questions that come to minds of students while they are in early semesters of their college. Let's try to answer these questions! As training trains you for an internship so obviously they seem similar, let's first see few differences between internships & trainings-

Basically, training refers to a period of time in which you learn some skills, get some hands on experience on how a particular skill is implemented, make a few projects under guidance of your trainer, etc. On the other hand, during an internship you are supposed to work on projects along with your team, you get a lot more practical experience, you meet a lot of people, you build connections & you actually get an idea of how the corporate world works!
Generally, duration of trainings may range from 15 days to 1 or 2 months. On the other hand, duration of internships may range from 1 to 6 months.
Generally some price money is involved in training which you pay for course or trainer, until and unless it's a free training course or you got some source. On other hand, generally you get paid while an internship.
Internships provide much more practical experience than a training.
Internships provide much more experience about corporate world than a training & if you get an internship at bigwigs like Microsoft or Google, believe me, that is going to be one of best time period of your life!

Now, the question is how to decide what to do? Should I try for internship or shall I join some training courses?
The answer to these questions depend on what skills do you have right now! If you are good at competitive programming/problem solving, you have done some projects on web development/android development/ML/etc., the answer is yes, go for an internship, try for it!
But, if you new to programming, you don't have any idea about competitive coding, project development, etc., the answer is no, go for some training, free or paid that's your call.

When I applied for internship at Microsoft, I had previous experience as an online teaching assistant at Coding Ninjas, so any experience that relates to your domain will serve you later in your interviews. Don't take stress that you haven't done any internship right now. Once you develop the proper skill set required for internships, you will make it happen. The important point is, first get the right skills, become good at competitive coding, do some projects in parallel, after that apply to internships. This way, you won't get depressed, even if you make it through round 1 only, you will still get some confidence!

So, if you are new to programming when you join your college, train yourself for the first one & half year, you can use internet, YouTube, Udemy, websites, etc. In parallel, make good connections on LinkedIn & stay updated about job/internship alerts. After that, when you have sufficient confidence in your domain, apply to internships. Try to get referral if possible as it helps a lot in shortlisting of your resume. Even if you fail, you will learn something new. Some get their shot in first attempt, for some it takes time. It doesn't matter how slow you go, until & unless you don't stop!

And talking about the stipend, I think something is better than nothing. Try to grab the opportunity even if it's small. The main things to consider is while applying for an internship are-

Will it help you to learn something related to your domain?
Will it help you to make better connections?
Will it help you to convert your theoretical knowledge to practical work?
Is stipend sufficient to what you expect with respect to your skills? But remember, initially don't expect a very high stipend :)!

If the answer to above questions is yes, go for it! Get some experience, whether it is as a teaching assistant, content writer, etc., try to make things interesting, try to learn from it & when in future interviewer asks about it, you must be able to explain how your job helped the company that hired you or how it was useful to people. Always remember, a glass of water might seem empty but it is full of air, similarly no matter how small job/internship is, it's on you how make it happen, how you make it interesting, how you make it useful! Recruiters will value your creativity & spirit of work! Keep hustling & one day you will surely get your dream internship or job. Don't stop when you get tired, stop when you are done!