The law prohibits the employment of young persons under 14 years unless such works are done in homes, vocational technical schools or other training institutions.
Additionally, the work done in a vocational technical school or other training institution must be approved and supervised by a public authority or is an integral part of the educational or vocational training programme for which the school or institution is responsible.
Recently, there has been a wave of private and public skills’ development programmes where industry players offer opportunities to students or fresh graduates to acquire the needed and demanded work-related experience and skills.
Such opportunities, if offered whilst a person is still schooling, especially at college, are termed attachment, while if offered after one has recently completed schooling, are called internship.
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Mostly, industrial attachments are facilitated by the learning institutions and students themselves.
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Employers come in as part of their corporate social responsibility. As such, it could be understandable whether an employer pays or does not pay the student on attachment.
On the other hand, an internship is a programme offered by an employer that provides potential employees with work experience.
Internships typically target fresh graduates who work one to twelve months at an organisation to gain practical on-the-job or research experience.
A n internship is a transition stage for students into full employment. T h e understanding is that the holder has the potential to work in a position he or she understands if given exposure to it.
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As such, the holder is exposed to the same conditions that the rest of the employees are subjected to and contributes as much to the success of the organisation.
With this in mind, there are several factors to consider when tackling the issues of internships and interns.
For a start, an internship is not a substantive or established position within any organisation. As such, the time spent on an internship programme should be reasonable.
The intern is there to learn and not to work as an employee. Professional organisations would arrange that an intern should be working under someone always.
Secondly, interns are not industrial attachments and employers know this well. As such, the job offered to an intern should neither be for free but a reasonable amount should be payable to such interns to cater for transport and other incidentals in the course of the internship.
Thirdly, interns are not supposed to have a proper job description as they are just there to learn the job from seniors who have to assign some of their responsibilities to the interns and guide them through as they do the work.
Unfortunately, with the high rate of unemployment, most employers tend to abuse and overuse the employees they regard as interns by making them work harder but pay them meagre salaries.
Most employers do not offer these types of employees’ medical aid, pensions or other social benefits like funeral support in cases of death.
Sadly, we do not have laws on how interns should be managed, which gives room to most employers to exploit interns by keeping them on internship for too long.
On the other hand, the vulnerable fresh graduates and employees termed as interns are allowed to be exploited as they do not have alternative jobs that would offer them rewards matching their input. Jobs are scarce.
Treating all employees, including the ‘interns’, fairly has so many benefits. It attracts and retains top talent.
Paying ‘interns’ a living wage promotes fairness and equity within the workplace, as they often contribute meaningful work to an organisation. Paying them and treating them fairly is an acknowledgment of their efforts.
When internships and interns are abused, their levels of current and future professionalism and morale are negatively affected.
Unpaid or low-paying internships can exclude talented candidates who cannot afford to work without adequate compensation.
It takes away inclusivity. In the long run, this behaviour of mistreating ‘interns’, which would be termed modern-day ‘professional’ exploitation or slavery, fails to establish positive relationships with potential future employees.
It is a cancer that affects reputation and employer branding.
To resolve the problems, there is a need for the Ministry of Labour to have clear guidelines on how internships should be managed.
Internships were supposed to serve as a pipeline for talent, but when interns or employees who are unjustifiably grouped in this category are mistreated, they are given a negative experience and feel undervalued.
