Interns who expect to get paid is an alien idea to me. I thought internships were merely an opportunity to experience a real workplace while not being an employee.
Recently I started hearing about paid internships for some pretty specific roles (engineering, internet companies, etc.)
Internships for governments were usually for the nerds that were graduating with a poly sci or public administration degree. Back in the day, they were the place where you starting building your network that they could graft from when they started their careers.
I guess I am just an old fart.
My son was a paid intern at NASA for 2 summers during college. (yes, he’s an engineer)
Power Engineering Majors at the Maine Maritime Academy are required to complete COOPs. During the summer they coop at paper mills and power mills. Some years ago they were paid $15.00 an hour and time and a half for work over 40 hours a week and/or on weekends. They earned enough to pay for their senior year of college (or buy a pickup truck)!
This started to become a thing a couple decades ago. The rationale was that kids from lower income families needed to work at anything to make ends meet while the well to do could work for free and get valuable resume points unavailable to the unwashed.
As it runs out, the well to do still get the internships based on their connections but now they are getting paid on top of it.