My issue in “Unpaid” intenships is that it is legalized extortion. “Wash my car”, or “Get my coffee” is hardly on-the-job training. It’s legalized slavery.
If the intern isn’t worth half or even a quarter the pay-rate that a degreed professional “fresh-out” is worth - fire him, and invest the money in someone worthy of the job.
In my experience, we hire “Interns” at a substancially lower rate of pay than we do Grads without any experience. We assign the “Intern” a series of tasks at a level of sophistication that will determine whether a more permanent job offer is going to await him at the end of the summer.
In “the old days”, it wasn’t unusual for a good peforming Intern, with a positive attitude to be offered not only a job when he graduated, but the final semester “paid for” if he would commit to start at the company at graduation.
The Internship served dual purposes. It gave the company a low-cost “trial” of an Intern’s attitude, committment and capabilities - but it also gave the Intern a glimpse at what the “real world” was like when he graduated.
The “Free” Internship offers none of the benefits these programs used to offer - and advances a form of slavery that will discourage students. And given the quantity of students graduating with a meaningful degree on the decline - it’s very short-sighted.
Now, for graduates in “Women’s Studies” and other non-sensical degrees - what did they expect to do when they graduated? They can serve me dinner, wash my dishes and weed my lawn. But, they should be paid at least minimum wages while they do that.
I was fortunate enough to have a paid internship (significantly abover minimum wage at the time), and the employer treated me well. Even better, I received school credits toward my degree, and I eventually worked with a senior systems' analyst that taught me a lot about software requirements and design. The icing on the cake was that I got to work with a very cutting-edge development tool, and I learned how to become very creative with it, which made me even more attractive to that employer.
I didn't just jump into the internship and get that from day 1, however. I had some, more menial tasks--perhaps to show them my mettle, or to show them my perserverance. So I can't help but wonder if these non-paid interns, with a little fortitude and a positive attitude, couldn't work into getting more responsibilities, and larger, more complex projects?
Sure, there are a lot of companies looking to save a buck, I get that. But good people with good skills are hard to come by, and if someone has proved themself, why wouldn't a company consider giving them more challenges? It could be win-win for both.
>>>It’s legalized slavery
Compensation doesn’t have to be money to be worthwhile.
The interns receive non-monetary compensation by putting the possibly impressive position on their resumes. Colleges and employers indeed look at this.
The value is far greater than minimum wage. Running to Starbucks for Mr. Big at Megabucks Corporation or Bleeding Heart non-profit will differentiate this job applicant from the herd when applying to college or for a job afterwards.
These positions are often political gifts to the children of friends. They are not put in important positions, but as someone commented, they can cause damage.
In any case, why interfere in a free market situation?
What you refer to are management problems. Interesting, but in the 2 "internships" I held, I never had to wash anyones cars or get coffee, unless I was getting some for myself.
What I did in the first, at a radio station, was write news stories, do simple engineering tasks, like loading commercials onto carts, swept floors, untangled cables, and anything else that it would have been too expensive to have a paid person do. But I learned alot. Eventually I got into production and more sophisticated engineering tasks.
At my second internship (a recording studio), I untangled cables, swept floors, emptied ashtrays, and learned how to properly mic instruments, as well as microphone selection. And the little things, like making sure that a pair of headphones across the studio wasn't plugged in while recording a Marshall stack, because the Neuman U-47 mic would pick up the sound and cause phase problems!
Though I have never actually gone into either industry (have you ever tried getting a PAYING job at a recording studio?), I learned TONS of stuff and gained experience I never would have gotten had the radio station or studio had to pay me.
Mark