That's ridiculous. Interns in technical professions, espeically those around for a short time, really don't contribute much. The time experienced people spend keeping them busy detracts from their own work, and what the intern produces is often of less value than that foregone work. Companies are doing a public service letting unproductive kids hang around and get their feet wet.
The slavery thing is just dumb. Isn't the whole idea of slavery is its involuntary nature? The intern can walk out the door anytime. And did the experience an old South slave gained in the cotton field, set him up for a cushy, highly lucrative plantation manager position down the road?
Unpaid labor is unpaid labor. If companies will not hire without having them go through unpaid internships, then the companies are benefitting from free labor. The intern doesn’t get the choice of working with pay or working without.
As for the slavery... alright, then - indentured servant is a more accurate.
And if you’re so keen on the idea, why not give up your pay for a month or two?
“Interns in technical professions, espeically those around for a short time, really don’t contribute much. The time experienced people spend keeping them busy detracts from their own work, and what the intern produces is often of less value than that foregone work. Companies are doing a public service letting unproductive kids hang around and get their feet wet.”
Actualy this is very true. We had hired an inexperienced young lady. Our boss came to me: Find out why isn’t she answering her email.
She hadn’t selected her “Inbox.” Other mistakes included letters referring to “sir name” and “sir reply.” Need I say more?
If you are training someone it requires that you set tasks & check everything and that is double the effort for staff.
Internship is free school.
That’s the old, more noble form of internships.
Lots of companies now just bring in a slew of fresh interns every few months to be their free, low-skill labor force. It’s part of an ugly business model and once some companies in a market practice it it is prohibitively expensive for their competitors not to.