Unpaid Intern Should Not Be Allowed

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Unpaid intern should not be allowed

Abstract

The internship is part of the student’s requirement to be declared a full graduate at any level of

education. Also, it is a way of a student to gain experience and develop skills concerning their

job. Also, it is a way of learning recommendation and building the individual portfolio to get

employment. The employers are greatly interested with employees who have experience. The

study identified the continued growth for the need of internship. The internships are a way to

face the challenges that are facing the new graduates as they seek employment. It identifies that

internship is beneficial since it exposes the student to the real experience of their work needs.

Also, it exposes them to professional, social and tactical skills appropriate to compete in the

work environment. The study discredits the existence of free internship. The unpaid internship

does not serve the interests of the interns but rather serves the interest of the employers. The

students incur costs while working for the organizations for free. Moreover, the study elaborates

how unpaid internships are social and economic costly to the society.

Introduction

It is a requirement that for a student to have correctly completed their education, they

require having gone through an internship. Even though students work hard in their areas of the

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internship, their efforts are usually not awarded. The unpaid internship should not be allowed

since it is a disadvantage to the interns. Also, the unpaid internship is a drawback to the economy

since as employees they could have used the money to beneficial activities. Intern is an exquisite

experience for students to cultivate experience at the job market. However, the economics of the

unpaid internships are also very evident. “Free” is the cheapest thing in the world, and that is

what the employers are desperate to take advantage. The free intern should not continue to exist

because free intern is unfair to other labor forces, a free internship is expensive for intern

students to take, and unpaid internship will lead to the economics to get down as it lowers the

minimum wage.

The period for an internship in some case it goes even to a period of more than six

months. It is of the essence to note the fundamental purpose of the internship is usually to gain

experience regarding a particular set of education an individual have undertaken. Hence¸

students usually do not have much of choice but to find internships so as to get experience and

recommendation that would help them get employment. However, it is important to note that

while gaining experience the students are productive. The paper will discuss the background

information concerning the upcoming of internship and its growth over time. It will consider the

literature concerning internship and its application in various organizations. Furthermore, the

paper will support the argument that free internship should not be allowed.

Background

Current background of job market and what are valued in the job market

Education is a crucial factor and requirement for an individual to get employment.

Different jobs have varying education experience requirement. Some require an individual to

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have high school education base, others a college diploma, while others degree. Education

background usually subjective to the demands of a certain field one is seeking employment.

Additionally, to education an individual ought to have experience and is often gained through the

internships. It is appropriate to state that, in most cases, people seek an education with the motive

of securing education is to get a suitable employment. Also, job applicant’s education level

matters. In this case, an individual having a college degree has more chances of securing a job

unlike a person with high school education. Furthermore, a person having a master’s degree have

more chances of getting an employment compared to a person with a college degree. According

to Pianin, (6) the unemployment rate drops to the education rate of an individual level rises. The

study conducted in 2013 revealed that the unemployment of people having a doctoral degree had

a rate of 2.2% while the unemployment rate of individuals having a high school diploma was

11%. The analysis reveals that the more education an individual has, the more likely they are

likely to get employed.

Also, different majors have different employment situation in any economy. Concerning

this, it is true to state that the most favorable majors with a broad range of job opportunities they

tend to have few people studying in the modern society individuals having computer science

majors tend to have high employment opportunities. It is usually difficult to get opportunities in

the competitive major for a student to study since they require high standards; it is in support for

their demanding of more intelligence. An individual having a major in linguistics or Latin, music

among others face a hard time while looking for a job. On the other hand, business management

and administration related majors are moderately competitive in the job market since there are

many employment opportunities (Carapezza 8). Moreover, the engineering majors have a better

position of getting employment compared to other fields. Students need to choose education for

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their career carefully. One cannot decide to enter the business world and undertake engineering

course or the other way round. It is because the education qualifications lay forth the foundation

for an individual to come the job market.

The social background of the job market is not favorable to new graduates

However, the social background of the job market is unfavorable to new entrants due to

the following reasons. There exists severe competition between the skilled workers and new

graduates seeking employment. Besides education background, the employers are hugely looking

for individuals with skills. A job confidence survey conducted in 2014 implied that 7 out of 10

organization’s puts more emphasize on skills more than degree education (Pianin 8). Most of the

global companies are putting more importance on significant experience over educational

achievement. Some industries value experience more than the education qualification such as

sales and construction. The new graduates with education background from such industries will

face stiff competition while seeking for employment.

In the current society productivity in most industries has grown substantially. Substantial

technology development characterizes the industries. Technology has led to increased

productivity in all sectors which are vital to the economy. However, the disadvantage is that

technology development affects the labor market since it has resulted in reduced labor

requirement in industries. The new graduates face significant difficulty as they seek for

employment in the modern society as compared two years ago. There is also the 1996 depression

that economy is yet to recover fully. The recession has impacted different industries and their

ability to grow. The retarded growth of the industries is a drawback to the need for more

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employees. Additionally, to the employment opportunities, it is hard for new graduates to start

self-employments.

The other challenge is the increased population in most states. Above and beyond the

efforts enacted to create job opportunities for different countries it is hard to keep up with the

population growth (Soergel 3). From the mid-1940s to 1970 populations has grown rapidly.

Studies indicate that after the baby boom. For example, the state of California requires creating

approximately 2 million jobs to satisfy its population growth. Such other countries as Texas job

deficit is 700,000 jobs while Utah needs creating about 115 more jobs. In the end, the market is

characterized by more labor force and the delayed retirement of the baby boomers makes the

matters worse. The delaying retirement for millions of individuals is blocking the new graduates

from getting employment.

The immigrants also contribute substantially to the population growth whether the legal

or illegal immigrants. Both the legal and unlawful immigrants pose competition to the job

market. There is the argument that even though the immigrants add to the labor supply, they tend

to consume goods and services which could have been used to create more job opportunities

(Zimmer 3). The legal immigrants have education qualification that makes them capable of

competing frequently. On the centrally, the illegal immigrants pose massive competition to the

natives as they seek low-skilled and cheap labor opportunities. Therefore, immigrants are a

significant threat to the job market since most are willing to work for long hours and any wages.

As identified, the labor market is characterized by a considerable number of challenges

facing the new graduates. One of the ways to address the problem is outsourcing. Labor

outsourcing is a proper way to address the job problems and help find employment opportunities

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in other countries (Roberts 2). The American graduates would have exceptional skills and

qualifications that are demanded in other countries (Bartlett 7). The individuals have chances to

get jobs in other continents as Africa. In the other hand, most of the companies could assist in the

job situation by going global. The globalization of industries would mean an expansion of the job

opportunities.

New college graduates have difficulty finding major-related, satisfying, and stable

job

It is clear that new graduates face difficulty in finding major–related, stable and satisfying

jobs. However, if the graduates could try to find best interns immediately after graduation, they

would be in a better position to finding employment. Finding interns in promising organizations

would adequately help the students to establish a foundation for work (Weismann 4). Finding the

internship immediately after graduation helps the new graduate to gain experience early enough

and they would emerge competitive within a margin of real time. The process of finding reliable

internship may be challenging to most new graduates, however¸ it is a credible basis for most of

them to get exposure and step into the society.

Literature review

Intern’s benefits to students

Internship identifies as a process through which a student gains experience regarding

their career choice. The placement compliments education qualifications that an individual has

acquired. It is that the internship links a student to the real world experience. It is a case where a

student first applies the knowledge they have acquired in class and the real work. Thus, it is a

basis for gaining useful experience that a person will need not only to work but as advantage to

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seeking employment opportunity. Based with Alvin “Experience is cheap- Training dear” he

explains that a person who has gone through internship would become a supervision since one

understands what the job entails. In most cases, people working as interns in particular

company’s gets absorbed by the companies as their employer. Such individuals credit the

internship for the opportunity. Amy Kalbunde explains how Intern at Department of Energy lab

near San Francisco where she gained knowledge about environmental policy (from “Advice for

new grads”). The internship gave her an opportunity to get a job worth $28, 000 a year at an

environmental firm. It is right education at the college and education involves only basic

knowledge getting in the field exposes a person to the real world where they learn what is

required from them. Therefore, the intern provides experience crucial to the development of a

person career.

Likewise, an internship helps students find jobs quickly. It is noted that the employees are

seeking for employees who have good experience in the jobs they are interested. In most

industries such as construction and sales and marketing an individual who have internship

experience has more chances to get hired than a person who does not possess the experience. The

argument of the employer in such opportunity as sales is then an experienced individual is likely

to bring the company profits as compared to a person who has no real world experience in sales

and marketing (Shepherd 6). In support having worked as an intern in competitive companies

also boosts an individual’s capability to get full job successfully in other businesses. For

example, an individual’s who has worked as an intern in Apple is likely to get employment in

any other company.

As well, internship assists the students better comprehend their job and motivates them to

continue. An internship exposes a student to the requirements of the job. It provides important

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concepts that are not usually covered in a classroom environment. For example, an accountant in

internship would have to balance real financial statements while a sales intern will have to find

the strategies to sell real products. It is more than the theoretical aspects covered in the

classroom, and one finds that they need more than the concepts. An internship helps in

expanding a person knowledge and understanding of their job requirements. Internships involve

interacting with other individuals who are working in the same organization (Knouse, 50). These

people tend to be skilled and experienced in various ways. It assists the intern to gain insight into

matters that they may not have come across in class. In the end, it helps build the students

competitiveness and the capability to perform better even in their internships.

Internship acts as a motivation for the students to continue pursuing their career dreams.

If an individual is studying to become a doctor, an intern at the hospital motivates him to keep

studying and working to achieve the dream job. In the article “Mead Corporation creative

approach to internship, Roever discusses that company prefers students who have an internship

(Roever, 90). The internship offers a student a chance to evaluate their capability of working in a

certain job. The students have the opportunity to reach a higher position in this environment

characterized by high resources that basis an individual career growth. As a student, one tends to

know the skills that are more important in a certain job and are motivated to perfect them and to

build their competitiveness. An internship provides professional experience to the student as they

relate to people within the organization. It provides exposure to work environment professional

ethics and social ethics appropriate to an individual. Kasky (p. 3)states that the more visible and

interactive a person is the higher the chances of getting a job. Hence, the internship provides with

more connection and individuals who are likely to vouch for them increasing the likelihood of

employment.

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Unpaid intern should not be allowed

The employers are always striving to hire an intern as free labor. On the hand, students

require having intern experience to succeed in the job market. It is true that most of the

organizations have made it one of their strategies to reduce the costs of operation by hiring free

interns. The employers prefer the interns with some of the organizations always offering an

internship in several periods per year. The objective is usually to reduce the costs of hiring

permanent or payable employees. It is appropriate to state that the employers tend to take the

advantage of the students desperately looking for an internship to build their experience (Smith et

al 155). It is clear that the market has deemed it necessary for students to have sufficient

experience to secure a job opportunity. However, it is not proper to take the advantages of the

students while they get nothing in return for rendering their services to the organizations.

The employers hire the intern's benefits from the same services which they could have

got by hiring payable employees. The fact that they hire free interns does not mean that they do

not make a profit or their organizations do not attain growth. The employers are gaining benefits

and increased performance for their organizations without having to incur the labor costs; it is an

unfair treatment for fellow human beings to use them for profit maximization without having to

pay even a small amount. The fact that they are interns does not mean they perform any less. It is

suitable to state the interns tend to work hard than the payable employees. The interns work hard

since they need a positive and high recommendation so also seek employment after the

internship. Other employers tend to entice the interns by implying that if they work hard, they

may be absorbed by the company as employees where they would begin to enjoy the

employment benefits therein. However, in most cases, the employers are not interested in the

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intern’s welfare rather than the maximization of their profits and the growth of their

organizations.

The purpose of the internship is to help students understand their job requirement and

how it goes. However, the employers usually do not offer the interns to serve this purpose rather

benefit from free labor. The students don’t have much choice but to go ahead serving the

employers for free. Besides the services that the students provide they also incur some costs such

as traveling and other maintenance costs. It would be appropriate for the employers to pay for the

services rendered to them. It is true that the interns do not have the experience required

completely for the job. However, the companies could implement such a program where they are

paying the interns half the salary that a fully qualified individual receives. In other cases, the

companies fail to provide an adequate environment for the intern to learn more about their jobs

Lohman 23). The employer will tend to send the interns to work in the areas they require covered

for the ongoing of the organization. In most cases, the interns have no bargaining power either

for the pay or the working conditions. It occurs in cases where to find an internship is hard or

companies where students are competing to find an internship.

Intern is unfair for lower class students

The rationale for internships is to lay the foundation for better jobs and bigger salaries. If

so it would be appropriate to consider an internship to benefit the millions of lower-class

students who cannot afford to work for free. The implication in this is that many students are

locked out of some of the employment opportunities because they would not have provided to

work for months without income. One of the key areas is the public field of legislative and

related job opportunities. The internships in such sectors take as long as six months or more and

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since they are unpaid it requires one to have support from parents or other guardians (Durrant

165). The individual with able families and support ends up in these opportunities. It is

unfortunate that the qualified and persons of high integrity and valuable perspectives are locked

out of the possibilities. It is the reason for poorly formulated policies to deal with issues as

poverty since the person in the position does not understand poverty or any other problem that

may the policy be intended to rectify.

Moreover, the time and living costs for the interns is very expensive. Having gone to free

internship, it would mean that you will spend your summer with no money bearing in mind that

college is unreasonably expensive. In some cases, the students have to find internship away from

their home which requires relocating. For example, students seeking an internship in the

broadcast industry would need to move to such cities as Los Angeles, Atlanta, and New York.

The fact that one will need to relocate and work for free tends to block thousands of students and

end their hope for getting the better-paying jobs. The argument that the employers are providing

experience to the students is unsuitable. It is immoral for corporations to enjoy labor services

from the interns at no cost at all and what they will have to do at the end is write a

recommendation for the student. It is wrong since the students pay for housing and the internship

credits and besides incurring these costs, they work for free.

The unpaid interns lower wages for all individuals in the economy. The internships

articulate to the devaluing of the work done. The employers will go on advertising for internship

opportunities to avoid paying for the employees looking for a job. It is to state that some

employers are looking for interns that are fully trained and have considerable experience already

(Tripp 341).The companies will set a limit for individuals even requesting that they bring

portfolio and listing of places they have worked there before. The employers would go on stating

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that the individuals would have to work for six months to one year without payment. It is

inhuman since such experienced people contribute to the welfare of the organization for no

reward. If there were a willingness by the employers to provide employment to the interns, then

they would even cater for such expenses as food and shelter for the trainees. The learning

process becomes stressful for the students when they are not being paid, and this usually lowers

their performance which would not have been the case.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the study reveals that it is correct to pay the interns. There is no need for

pretense by the employers that they are serving the students interests by offering opportunities to

develop their skills and experience. The unpaid interns should be discontinued, and government

and schools require working together in discouraging free internships. The unpaid internship is

blocking fully exploitation of resources. It occurs when the intelligent individuals who would

have otherwise made a meaningful change in the society are blocked for getting employment in

certain areas because they could not afford for the internship. It is a cost to the whole society

when individuals make inappropriate policies in the current job opportunities, and they were

placed there because they could afford the internships. Also, the continuation of the unpaid

internship is likely to influence the minimum wage. It is a drawback to the economic growth and

the salaries of all the individuals in the economy.

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Work cited

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Well Placed, and Going Nowhere." PBS NEWSHOUR. PBS Publication, 3 Sept. 2014.

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