The concept of internship is quite simple, it is all about acquire first hand experience on the field, not just textbook definition of how it is done but getting the experience while getting the job done. It allows people to learn a lot faster and get used to the job. The learning process is more intense but highly productive. Which is why most schools create time for students internship training.
In today's environment, it is no longer about how good you are academically or your GPA but how you could apply what you have learnt in the field effectively. What will be the point of what a person had learnt, without the ability to apply it? This is why companies prefer to employ people with more experience on the field.
Now the issues is about a funny perspective of most companies. They believe they are doing interns a favor but let us not forget that, they are also getting jobs done. In fact, in most organization, interns are given very difficult task to do because it is believed that they are dispensable. Despite some of the ill treatment of interns, to still believe that they don't deserve to be paid, that is just cruelty.
There are companies that pay interns, though the pay might not be as high as the staffs but these companies recognize the fact that, interns are also working. So it is not about the learning only, a job is also involved. Interns also go through normal struggle just like every other person, they spend money to come to work and also have bills to pay. As long as they are devoting their time to get the job done, they should get paid for the time spent.
Though most companies might argue that; are we not teaching them for free? well if that was the case, why are some interns handling as much task as the staffs or why are they closing late at night? This is one of the issues corp members face at their PPA, though corp members don't fully fall under the category of interns. Most companies will write to NYSC, requesting corp members because they don't have the funds to employ permanent staffs.
Finally, when they get the corp members to work for them, they feel they don't deserve to pay them any penny to add to what they are receiving from the federal government. But they use the corp members like they are staffs, with no incentives. We are all Human beings and adding extrinsic benefits definitely goes a long way in motivating people to work.
There are some companies with lot of interns, so you being there is just an addition. But there are some with very little staffs, they use interns to push their work loads and still believe paying interns is not necessary, that is just pure extortion. That is why, you see some interns running after some companies and running away from some, no one wants a job without pay.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Paid interns in hive learners community.
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