The rise of intern economy . The informalization of labor and of HRM practices (original) (raw)
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tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
This article looks towards the future of the intern economy by focusing on its past. What led to recent debates about the intern economy? How did it become legally possible for interns to work for free? Using the United States as my case study, I draw parallels between the current intern economy and its closest historical antecedent, the apprenticeship system. By providing a brief overview of the history of work-based learning and the unpaid internship’s legal underpinnings, this article ultimately frames current lawsuits and debates as a correction to today’s insufficiently scrutinized youth labour regime not unlike the apprenticeship systems of the past. In the attempt to facilitate youth transitions from school to work, yet maintain minimum wage standards, government intervention and—more imminently likely—legal decisions will, I anticipate, eventually transform the intern economy much like the Fitzgerald Act of 1937 drastically formalized apprenticeships in the United States.
INTERNSHIP AS A SPACE FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND ITS PRECARICATION IN THE WORLD OF WORK (Atena Editora), 2022
The article is part of a research developed in the Graduate Program in Education and Technology of IFSul (PPGEdu/MPET), with a qualitative approach, and seeks to understand the internship as a space for professional learning in a scenario of precariousness in the world of work. It is concerned with the space of capitalism in a developing country and the precariousness of labor legislation and the implication of this condition for young people who need to enter the job market. Brazilian legislation provides for students to complement theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge through the internship period, an important condition that aims to complement professional learning. The internships are foreseen in the pedagogical projects of the courses and comply with specific legislation. In this text we bring the results of a pilot research that we carried out for the qualification process of the PPGEdu/MPET Dissertation.
The regulation of internships a comparative study
2018
In 2012, the International Labour Conference issued a resolution with a call for action to tackle the unprecedented youth employment crisis through a set of policy measures. The resolution provides guiding principles and a package of inter-related policies for countries wanting to take immediate and targeted action to address the crisis of youth labour markets. This paper is part of follow-up action on knowledge building coordinated by the ILO’s Youth Employment Programme (YEP). Together with apprenticeships and temporary jobs, internships (or traineeships as they are often called in Europe) have become an important part of the transition from education to employment, especially in higher-income countries. Concerns have been expressed in recent years about the role of internships in serving as an effective bridge between education and (paid) work. Against that background, and in particular the ILO’s commitment to promote decent work for young people, the objectives of this paper are...
The research is an analysis about conditions and regulatory forms of internship, providing empirical evidence on the case of postgraduate internships carried out in Italy in the last two years, trying to assess the quality of the learning environment where the interns worked and the effectiveness of internship in guiding and promoting the employability of graduates. The study is based on the results collected through a sample of graduates between 2011 and 2012 (N = 1154) using the CAWI method. First, data highlight how interns are in a condition of "role ambiguity" in which there is a clear contrast about the clearness of information and conditions in which they operate and the expectations of bosses and colleagues about the tasks to be performed. Nevertheless, interns do not get adequate training input, they remain confined to limited aspects of their job and they do not got an overall knowledge of business activities, that in some way could limit their operational capacity and understanding of the "production" processes in the company. More problematic, however, is the impact of internship on employability. The weak capability of post graduate internship to promote employability has to be contextualized considering the peculiarities of the local labor market of a South-European country, mostly characterized by micro-entrepreneurship, family business, above all in the service sector with low added value and with a high tendency to use informal work.
Post-Graduation Internship between Exploitation and Training: A Research on the Italian Experience
ATHENS JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
The research is an analysis about conditions and regulatory forms of internship, providing empirical evidence on the case of postgraduate internships carried out in Italy in the last two years, trying to assess the quality of the learning environment where the interns worked and the effectiveness of internship in guiding and promoting the employability of graduates. The study is based on the results collected through a sample of graduates between 2011 and 2012 (N = 1154) using the CAWI method. First, data highlight how interns are in a condition of "role ambiguity" in which there is a clear contrast about the clearness of information and conditions in which they operate and the expectations of bosses and colleagues about the tasks to be performed. Nevertheless, interns do not get adequate training input, they remain confined to limited aspects of their job and they do not got an overall knowledge of business activities, that in some way could limit their operational capacity and understanding of the "production" processes in the company. More problematic, however, is the impact of internship on employability. The weak capability of post graduate internship to promote employability has to be contextualized considering the peculiarities of the local labor market of a South-European country, mostly characterized by micro-entrepreneurship, family business, above all in the service sector with low added value and with a high tendency to use informal work.
The New Degree?' Constructing Internships in the Third Sector
Sociology, 2015
The recent economic recession has impacted substantially on the graduate labour market, with many graduates now struggling to find secure employment in professional careers. In this context, temporary, unpaid 'internships' have emerged as increasingly important as a 'way in' to work for this group. Yet while there has been much media and policy debate on internships, academic consideration has been scant. This article begins to address this knowledge gap by drawing on a study of interns in a third sector environmental organisation. The research findings reveal that unpaid internships were rationalised through a complex mix of political motivations, career ambitions and lifestyle aims, but these intersected in important ways with social class. These findings are not only of empirical interest, contributing to our knowledge of graduate negotiations of precarity, but also of theoretical value, extending our understanding of young people's agency and motivations in transitions into work.
2020
The research is an analysis about conditions and regulatory forms of internship, providing empirical evidence on the case of postgraduate internships carried out in Italy in the last two years, trying to assess the quality of the learning environment where the interns worked and the effectiveness of internship in guiding and promoting the employability of graduates. The study is based on the results collected through a sample of graduates between 2011 and 2012 (N = 1154) using the CAWI method. First, data highlight how interns are in a condition of "role ambiguity" in which there is a clear contrast about the clearness of information and conditions in which they operate and the expectations of bosses and colleagues about the tasks to be performed. Nevertheless, interns do not get adequate training input, they remain confined to limited aspects of their job and they do not got an overall knowledge of business activities, that in some way could limit their operational capaci...
Stairway to employment? Internships in higher education
Higher Education, 2015
This article aims to shed light on the current debate regarding the role of internships in higher education in graduates' employability. In specific, it analyses empirical data on a large-scale study of Portuguese first-cycle study programmes, in order to explore indicators of the professional value of internships in the employability of higher education graduates. Results demonstrate that study programmes that include internships tend to significantly enhance graduates' employability, particularly within the universe of polytechnic and public higher education institutions. Besides the instrumental value of internships, the impact of the nature and structure of the internship on the percentage of unemployed graduates are also discussed. Mandatory internships and the inclusion of multiple, shorter internships throughout the degree are negatively associated with unemployment levels. Results indicate work-based learning can be used as a successful strategy to bridge theoretical knowledge and practice and enhance graduate employability. These findings provide important insights for the evaluation and/or the design of internship programmes in higher education.
Yes, we can: internships providing leverages in the labour market
2014
Facing unprecedented challenges to deal with the problem of graduate unemployment, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly concerned with the professional insertion of their graduates in the labour market and with the design of institutional mechanisms that facilitate students’ transition from higher education to work. This has been achieved, inter alia, through the creation of study programmes with internships, or several other forms of cooperative education between HEIs and employing institutions. Benefits of internships are extensively reported in the majority of studies dealing with the professional integration of graduates. There is a general consensus that internships can be regarded as an institutional mechanism that facilitates students’ transition from higher education to work. However, there seems to be a gap between the intended results and the actual impact of internships on employability, which needs to be better understood. Moreover, existing research ten...