The Sunday, April 3rd New York Times' Opinion Section includes an article titled "Unpaid Interns, Complicit Colleges" which examine the issue of un-paid internships for college students and the possibility that these internships may unfairly help the employer and university to the detriment of students. After reading and summarizing the article(see link)state your views and be ready to share these in class for extra credit points.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03perlin.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I so agree the internship is a form of exploitation. When the college dictates that you have to spend 3 to 6 months at an establishment without getting paid is Horrendous. Don't get me wrong I believe that a person need to be exposed to the career the about to partake. But need to find a better than us students getting exploitated like that. I personally was doing a 6 months internship in a hospital in a position that pays from 18 to $20 an hour. I had to come on time leave a the same time. doing 36 hours a week for no money.Because of the demand couldn't work to support myself and my children. Colleges need to better represent students. If you are working you need to get compensated. I found employeer leaving open positions for interns because they don't have to pay anything and the position always filled with an intern. they capitalize on our back
ReplyDeleteSaunders
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis article is basically talking about the issue of unpaid internships for students and how colleges and universities have driven their students into unpaid internships without really informing them about their rights as students. The article provides us with an example of Will Batson, a Colgate University student who basically had no money while he was doing his full-time summer internship, leaving him with no stable home and confidence. The article is essentially stating that unpaid internship is a form of exploitation for students.
ReplyDeleteAlthough unpaid internships may seem like a form of exploitation to some people, I think it’s just a way to better prepare yourself for your future career. When the experience of an internship is practical and significant, it helps you learn more about a career field that might interest you and helps you develop a deeper passion for it. Although you are not getting paid, you are still gaining a lot of experience. It also allows you to build skills that will help you in the future when you apply for a full time job or paid internship. When applying for jobs or full time internships, sometimes you are required to basically start off as an unpaid intern and then you are able to build your resume from there. Unpaid internships allow you to build your portfolio and provide you with several opportunities. It also helps you gain experience that will help you in your future career. Therefore, I don’t really see unpaid internship as a form of exploitation to students.
Linda Padilla
SYG2000
This article was primarily arguing the idea that unpaid internships are a method of exploration. Because some colleges and universities failed to inform their students of their rights or protect them from certain draw backs and struggles they may encounter when interning with certain employers.
ReplyDeleteThis article mentioned how unpaid internship may also be a disadvantage for middle class or poor students whose parents are struggling with tuition cost in and of it self. Then you have students like me who are working through college and may have to miss out on those opportunities because we need to work and are working to save some money for our futures not save our hard earned money and gamble it away on trying to survive an unpaid internship. That may or may not benefit me all that much anyway.
In my opinion I think if you can afford to participate in an unpaid internship go for it. If not its wont kill you. Just because you never worked for free doesn't mean you wont get a job after graduating it is not an issue of life or death. Personally I wouldn't do an unpaid internship if it involved having to leave my state of go far from home because I know I can't afford that, but if it was an unpaid internship nearby were I can get living expenses free living at home then its a perfect opportunity. So if you want to do an unpaid internship do one that near you and it shouldn't be that much a struggle. Do only what you can handle.