May 5: Internship Unions

Labour day during college recess and students are all over the internet and newspapers and relatives looking for internship in Kenya.

It has become a very interesting trend in Kenya’s capital Nairobi as companies recruit interns for three months or so. The interns who are in abundance service this industry much of whom are never paid (some even pay the companies to ‘teach’ them). Like all businesses the companies can ‘outsource’ for this cheap labour instead of hiring permanent workers who cost them money.

The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that all jobs require a three or four year experience, and no graduate can make it into employment without having served as a pawn through internship and hope for absorption.

Just to throw in a little more for the fun of it universities have slotted that internship is in the curriculum so unless one goes through it they will never graduate.

Put all this ingredients together and you have scores of desperate students who are offering free, cheap labour or even paying organizations. It’s a capital system and business sense the opportunity use interns for the short time and dump them for other interns as universities constantly churn out new desperados every other time during the school year.

If this is a labour concern then I beg to voice it. I believe interns are a major skilled resource and by offering their services to organizations they deserve remuneration. Students have a heavy loan burden and barely survive through semesters. They are undeniably in need for money and thus they deserve to be paid and paid well.

It is a matter of fact, though, that organizations are important to students as they afford field experience to students. In fact, as a good recruitment policy its best to prove the worth of students through internships as a substitute to graduate trainees who might cost more.

However university students might have to consider an internship union that allows for interns to bargain while offering their services as a skilled resource and not just be workhorses. Universities can also consider teaching labour laws and union membership as a common course for all students to understand that as they enter the job market they should view themselves as integralcontributors to successes of companies rather than mere apprentices who work for free. It is undeniable that all workers who feel more appreciated contribute more and what better way to intern them.