Internship just like any other employer-employee contract forms requires the expertise of the employee, which benefits the employer in return the intern securing the desired experience for future professional development. In as much as most interns are college or university students who train for white-collar jobs and professional careers, it may also involve high school, or post graduate adults who are seeking for on the job experience. In this scenario, internship is more of an exchange of services for experience where the intern provides services expecting to gain experience.
Many interns may opt to go for unpaid internships, and this is because of the employer’s tendency to exploit interns who will go to extraordinary lengths to secure on the job experience. This emanates from the fact that many employing agencies will always prefer applicants who have job experience, and this creates an avenue for opportunistic employers to benefit their company from the intern’s services at no cost. This is extremely saddening especially when the company and not the student benefit from the internship. According to Harvard (2004) most unpaid interns come from wealthy families, which means that unpaid internship only benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. This show a form of inequality where only those that are capable of affording unpaid internship continue to benefit and these interns who come from these rich families may not be the best after all. The companies should thus opt to pay their interns so that they do not lose out on bright, capable and skilled students who do not want unpaid internship because of the needs they have to satisfy by offering their services, not for free (Harvard, 2004). It is also noteworthy that, in any case, such students accept the unpaid internship they will still have to find extra jobs to satisfy their needs, which makes them deliver less value to the organization and end up not acquiring the desired experience yet they are bright and capable. Therefore, by employees paying their interns they may not only be capable of identifying exceptional talent from among the students, but also enabling the students get right on the job training. This situation will help in cushioning the poor students against discrimination in a field that favors students coming from wealthy families.
However, there is the argument that paying interns will be illegal because of their job specifications that do not qualify for pay. To some extent, interns should receive payment for their services because if they receive payment then it will be just another form of employment. The services they offer are strictly for academic purposes where they follow a certain program and under the leadership of a supervisor. Therefore, it is just like an extension of the classroom work, but in a different setting with the working time that is not exceeding twelve months. This compliance has since changed with the influence of employers desire to hold down costs increasing, and the increase of the students eagerness to gain experience to boost their Curriculum Vitas (Greenhouse, 2010). This means that, currently, there is no proper distinction between legal and illegal unpaid internships, and this calls for paid internships for all students. Paid internships are effective in ensuring that students become dedicated to their allocated roles from which they can identify their areas of interest, and benefit the companies they are working for in the name of gaining experience. This will not only help companies identify formidable talents from among the interns, but also enable the interns to exploit their potential and produce the best, which can only happen through the inspiration of the short time and long term benefits, which, in this case, are payment and on the job experience respectively.
References
Greenhouse, S. (2010). The unpaid intern, legal or not. The New York Times. Retrieved from
< http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0>
Harvard, A. (2004). Unpaid internships face legal, ethical scrutiny. The Bowdoin Orient.
Retrieved from < http://bowdoinorient.com/article/73 >
