I was in school in the 1980’s...the only kids that got internships were minorities or kids who had families with pull.
In high school, the dumb kids got out of school early to go to work...quite a disadvantage for the smart kids.
I went to school in the 1980s, too. My “internship” was a part-time job doing menial work at an engineering firm that nobody else wanted to do. It was the best education I ever got.