Internships

  


   

   Internships are a form of education where students or others work with someone who has experience in their desired field. Internships are meant to be educational and ensure that the intern leaves with new skills that will be valuable for them as they attempt to find a career. The educational aspect of internships also means that it must be for a limited time. Many interns are unpaid as some believe the interns educational benefit justifies their unpaid labor, but internships often require a more significant time commitment than a regular class and incur more travel costs that are on the student. Internships also benefit the employer too. Employers are able to receive labor for no compensation, and the employers time commitment lessens as the intern becomes more experienced. Unpaid internships are often inaccessible to those who are more economically challenged and cannot afford to work for free. Unpaid internships established by colleges are more inaccessible because the student must pay the college for the credit received, and work unpaid. Over time, more interns have received compensation, but representation among paid internships is disparate. 

     Internships have their origins in a similar process called apprenticeships. Apprenticeships were practiced for hundreds of years through guilds, which were groups organized groups of craftsman or artists that were somewhat similar to the different labor groups of today. Apprenticeships were restrictive however, and apprentices could not earn wages or sell their labor to other groups for a period of ten years. The apprenticeship process lasted until around industrialization. It wasn't until the early twentieth century when the term intern began to be used to describe medical students who were working in hospitals as part of their education. In the 1980s internships became a widely used practice in the private and public sectors in many different fields. By 1990 most college students were completing internships to gain experience in their desired field. Much of the work being done by interns was unpaid, and this led to a variety of legal pushback on the unpaid labor. 

     The lawsuits led the courts to develop a list of 7 criteria to ensure that interns are not being taken advantage of for free labor. These criteria are meant to determine whether or not the student is the "primary beneficiary" of the relationship and gains something educational. The courts also established that internships must be for a set period of time so the clear end date creates a need for the student to learn at a reasonable pace. 

     Other lawsuits regarding internships are based around legal protections for interns. Since interns are unpaid, they are not technically employees of their institution. Without that distinction, interns are not protected by federal laws regarding sexual harassment and racial discrimination in the workplace. Courts have ruled this way numerous times and did so in the cases Smith v berks Community Television & Wang v. Phoenix Satellite Television US, Inc. Universities who push students towards internships may be held liable for what happens to their students in internships, but rarely are the employers themselves accountable. 

    Overall, unpaid interns are not wholly protected as an employee would be. Unpaid internships still account for about 47 percent of internships in academic spaces, but this number continues to decrease. Since unpaid internships are not as accessible to those economically disadvantaged  and legal protections for interns are not strong, White men are overrepresented. This leads to a less diverse workforce and limits the representation of diverse communities in museums and other fields. Museums, libraries, and educational institutions need to begin paying their interns. If money is too scarce to make this possible then they should not accept interns in the traditional manner, and work with colleges to find a way to expose students to what working in their desired field will be like without take advantage of the student's labor. 


 ttps://www.naceweb.org/about-us/advocacy/position-statements/6bcb7e07-b277-41a2-bc09-1bca8c2bfd58

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-unpaid-internships-still-exist-despite-hardships-for-young-workers

https://www.eliabroad.org/volunteer-vs-intern-the-difference#:~:text=What's%20the%20difference%20between%20an,your%20desire%20to%20help%20out.

https://www.taylorresearchgroup.com/news/2017/4/5/a-brief-history-of-the-internship#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Cintern%E2%80%9D%20was%20first,for%20the%20average%20college%20student.

Image Source: https://genealogybeyondthebmd.blogspot.com/2014/05/guilds-and-apprenticeships.html

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