Show Me the Money! …Or Not?
Sonya Horsburgh & Caleb Langdon // December 7, 2011
“I can’t get a job without experience. I can’t get experience without a job”. For university graduates, this age-old cycle is still as true today as it was twenty years ago during the last recession. In today’s economic environment, organizations are grappling with downsizing, and unfortunately, paid student work terms are often the first to be eliminated from budgets. Organizations find it difficult to justify hiring students when they are letting go of full-time employees. This has an obvious impact on students’ ability to gain the practical, career-related experience necessary for employment after graduation.
So how do students get the valuable experience they need to jump-start their careers? Unpaid internships appear to offer a solution; however it is not without its issues. We’ve all heard horror stories about graduates seeking experience only to be taken advantage of by employers looking for free labour. (If you haven’t, take a look at the UK website, Interns Anonymous – interesting and eye-opening!) And we’ve also heard success stories where graduates receive full-time employment as a result of their work. It’s an ongoing debate with no simple answers.
The discussion surrounding the legality of unpaid internships in Canada is not a new one and seems to be gaining momentum, particularly in Ontario. A quick internet search yields a number of articles and blogs related to this subject. One blog in particular, Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog, does a very good job of explaining the legality of the issue according to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act. It’s clear from this explanation that there is a very fine line for employers to walk.
Here at the Mount, co-op students are familiar with the criteria that work terms must be paid. The Canadian Association for Co-operative Education goes so far as to include “…remuneration for the work performed1” in its definition of co-operative education and accreditation requirements. The rationale for this requirement is two-fold: payment for work increases engagement and commitment; and payment for work helps students offset the cost of their education2.
Being paid does not guarantee a quality experience, but it certainly helps. When employers invest $93873 they are expecting a return on their investment. It’s in their best interest to ensure the work co-op students are engaged in adds value to their organization. When students receive compensation, they are committed to demonstrating their worth, and become invested in contributing to the success of the organization. This creates a partnership with clear expectations and obligations.
It will be interesting to see how the debate of unpaid internships unfolds as provinces take a closer look at this growing employment trend in relation to their labour standards. From a co-operative education perspective, being paid is an important criterion, and a founding principle which underpins the Mount’s program.
To weigh in on the subject, PR co-op student Caleb Langdon describes his experience as an intern:
As a third year student who had to defer my first co-op term, I believe the unpaid internship is a very viable option for students looking to work in their chosen field. In today’s economic situation organizations are finding it hard to justify hiring students as part of their budget. Many that do hire students need government funding in order to do so.
When I finally bit the bullet and realized that deferral was my only option after a long, drawn-out job search, I was devastated. I wondered how I was going to compete during the next co-op term when most of my peers would have real-world work experience in the field of communications. I continued to search for a summer job that would be relevant to my degree and went to many interviews. Often the interviewers would call the next day and say, “Your education is excellent, but unfortunately we want someone with more experience”.
I realized that outside the partnerships Mount Saint Vincent’s Co-op office has formed with employers, it was going to be very difficult to find paid work for skills that have not been tested in situations one faces in the workplace. The only way I could remain competitive with my peers was to work as an unpaid intern.
I eventually found an internship at Impact Communications Group here in Halifax. It was a great opportunity that allowed me to gain the experience I needed to stay competitive. An added benefit of working for Impact are the networking opportunities: I’ve collected fantastic references that have greatly improved my resume. Unpaid internships allow you to get the proverbial ‘shoe in the door’ to your chosen field of work. In future, employers will see you as someone that takes initiative and counts experience gained as valuable in the long-run–paid or not.
1 http://www.cafce.ca/en/coop-defined
2 http://www.cafce.ca/files/AC-ESR07.pdf
3 This figure is based on $15/hour, 35 hours/week for 16 weeks.
Additional articles:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/02/09/it-could-be-payback-time/
