For most young people, internships are the first step towards the labour market during or right after their degree. It is counted to be around four and a half million interns in the EU per year, from which -and this is the most striking part- 59% are unpaid, 40% have no contract (meaning, short social protection and no clarity of the tasks to be carried) and 30% have no learning content, whereas internships are acknowledged to be a crucial learning experience instead.

Youth organisations such as the European Youth Forum (YFJ in their acronym) have been advocating for long on youth rights and on quality internships. Some influential publications on the topic have been released so far, such as the booklet Quality jobs for young people and, more recently, the European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships, a charter with the basic guidelines for internships that are of quality and valuable for young people. Moreover, with the help of several partner organisations, the YFJ organised the first Europe Interns’ Day, taking place on July 18th in Brussels and which gathered over 200 people, according to the official figures by the YFJ.

Protesting under sunny Brussels for quality internships

Hence, the day started with interns and members from the European Youth Forum’s member organisations took over Place Luxembourg (the square right next to the European Parliament, also known as ‘Plux’ by the euro-bubble inhabitants) to protest against unpaid and unfair internships as a “modern way of slavery and exploitation”.

Under the (mostly unexpected) Brussels’ sun, the protesters could hear the voices of representatives of several youth organisations, such as InternsGoPro, Generation Europe and also AEGEE, which was represented by our Projects Director, Miguel Gallardo Albajar. We could also hear the words from the leaders of Génération Précaire, a French youth organisation that successfully pushed for changes in the law for internships and apprenticeships in France.

The discussion moved forward to the European Parliament, with a panel discussion that was firstly welcomed by Léa Hannaoui-Saulais, member of AEGEE-Lille and the Eastern Partnership Project who also presides EPSA, the European Parliament Stagiaires Association, which aims to empower the interns at the EP. “I have done five internships; four of them have been unpaid. I had done this because I was sure that would be useful for further professional experience”, she aknowledged, and she pointed that unpaid internships are indeed undervalued in tasks and salary and increases the risk of labour abuse. “We should start believing in ourselves”, she said, “but also companies must play their part”.

 Commissioner Vassiliou: “interns are not to meant make coffees”

One of the highlights of the day was the address of the Commissioner on Education and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou. She was clear on the role internships play on an individual’s learning process: “internships are a learning experience, but not in an abstract way. Interns are not volunteers”, she said. “And, foremost, interns are not there to make coffees”.

She recognised internships as “more than just a supplement to formal education” and that a quality assurance is needed in order to make a good transition towards the job market. Commissioner Vassiliou also stressed the role of internships in order to gain “soft and interpersonal skills”.

In the question round, the Commissioner was asked about her term in office, which will soon come to an end, and the legacy that she has left to her successor. “My legacy will be built on the transition to the labour market”, she stated. “I did my best in order to bridge the gap between education and employment and between skills mismatch”. Her successor, Vassiliou said, “will build their work on that”.

The launching of the European Label of Quality Internships

The importance of taking fair internships with a strong learning content was stressed throughout the event, but is there any method that can be used to evaluate the quality of internships? Well, one of the aims of the event was actually the launch of the European Label of Quality Internships by the organisation InternsGoPro. With this rating method, InternsGoPro enable interns to rate their company’s practices according to a specific criteria, and also gives visibility to the best employers that ensure that their internships bring an added value to their interns.

The label rates which are the best employers by the following seven criteria: Learning content, Remuneration, Supervision & Mentorship, Contract & Clarity of Tasks, Networking, Working Atmosphere and Career development. Each criterion corresponds to a certain number of points which determine whether an internship offer is eligible for a Label. Furthermore, there are three types of labels according to the  punctuation: Gold, Diamond and Platinum.

Therefore, not only interns themselves can benefit from checking which are the best places to take up an apprenticeship, but also employers and companies are interested. Acording to Régis Pradal, co-founder of InternsGoPro, this is a label that “can give high visibility and reputation”, through employer branding, e-recruitment of new talents and consulting.

Through bottom-up initiatives like this, the partner organisations believe that a light will be shed on the conditions under which many interns are, “a modern way of work exploitation” as it was mentioned in Place Luxembourg’s protests. If you wish to take a look at InternsGoPro’s project and even rate your own internship, you can check their website.

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona

Pictures by the European Youth Forum and Project 668

Internships are becoming increasingly important. A difficult economical environment means students face unprecedented challenges as they look to start their career. An internship helps a student get their foot in the door and provides employers with fresh meat. It seems that everyone is happy. However, the terrible accident that happened in City (London) to young intern Moritz Erhardt, 21, who died after reportedly working 72 hours in a row is the reason why businesses might start paying more attention to the way they treat those at the bottom of the ladder. Knowing that a lot of AEGEEans had the experience of working as interns, we kindly asked for the help and asked them few questions in order to know more.

Oksana Siruk( AEGEE-Kyiv) had a one month internship in Kyiv, Ukrainein the law firm. Oksana agrees that HRs are real challenges for interns: «I had two interviews and two tests. The first interview was with an HR – manager and it was about my career desires, aims and, as usual, why I have chosen this particular firm. At the end of the interview I did a test on my legal – language skills. The second interview was with a lawyer – chief of my future potential internship and after that interview I got a long task to be resolved at home during the week. All the tasks were real cases, with which lawyers in this company deal every day».

Despite the fact she was not even paid for the job she did, the future lawyer has no regrets: «I think, it was worth it, because I got a useful working experience. At the same time, I think, that unpaid internship should have some limitations in time. For example, unpaid internship for three months seems to be too long».

Having his first internship in «Tentlabs» (Eindhoven from february 2010 till june 2010) as a mandatory part for all bachelor students at the University of Applied Science, Maikel Wagemans (AEGEE-Eindhoven) did not even have a real interview: «This internship was at the company of a teacher of mine who asked me after one of the lectures whether I was interested in a particular project which was going on at his company. I never had difficult interviews or whatsoever, not even for a part-time job that I did next to my studies (the interview lasted 10minutes and half an hour later I signed the contract, starting the next day). But that might be because there is a higher demand for employees then are available in my field of study (Electrical Engineering)». Working for a small company Maikel could handle all the tasks: «The amount of work was determined beforehand as the project was bounded and it should be an equal amount of work as for regular employees, who would need the same amount of time. You know that you’ll always work a bit more toward the end since you want to finish things. Since it was a small company (less then 5 employees) the atmosphere was pretty informal. I received a key to the office and the alarm code so that I could get in, even when other employees were not there or leave late if necessary».

Having this type of internship is great – seems you have all the reasons to prove that you are worth something, to know more about the specialization I had chosen and even get hired by the company. «Being hired afterwards would be more based on the way you get your work done (the approach and way of thinking, and they will recognize it if there is a learning curve), and your personality. If you fit in the company and you are not such a lazy ass who thinks working is for other people, you have a good chance of being hired afterwards. Companies know that students do not have that much experience, and experience grows while doing a certain task. So it is their job to invest in the future, an internship is a good method to get to know each other.» – explains Maikel. Talking about the accident in the City, London, Maikel is confident that apparently it is/was “normal” for interns in a bank to work their ass off and prove themselves: «Since the whole economy is still unstable, banks are searching for the best fresh meat (graduates) to hire afterwards, if they hire new economic students at all. Now from my own experience, there was never pressure laid upon me by a company or external factor. The fact that I want a good grade for my final work is the way I put pressure to myself. In my current internship I have been working more hours then necessary, but I will compensate later by taking a few days off.»

Vicky Nikolaou (AEGEE- Piraeus) was so lucky to get an internship in the Netherlands, working in  a logistics company from October 2012 till July 2013 and she also thinks that there should be a line not to cross: «I think its normal that every intern wants to prove themselves but this doesn’t mean in any case that interns need to work to death. I have fallen in this trap too, working 7 days per week with no day off or sometimes without even a lunch break. The thing is no one really demands this from you. I realized that it is not okay to sacrifice your life in order to prove your value. Taking responsibilities and being committed should always stay in reasonable frames».

But it also happens that working as an unpaid intern could be a lottery ticket. One girl from Kyiv,Ukraine, who kindly asked not to be mentioned by name, and the company she worked in (one of the famous Big Four audit and accounting firm) revealed that in her country bosses might hint that in case you do the entire job and work really hard you can take a coveted spot. Unfortunately, to 70% of the interns is said that there were not enough efforts from them and after working for 2-3 months they got fired. And the vacancy for new victims who are ready to work for free opens again.

As everything on Earth, internships have their pros and cons. For many people it was a great opportunity to get to know more about the field they chose and understand that they made a right choice, for others it was a complete disappointment. Anyway, there are no doubts that opportunity only knocks once, so maybe it is better to think twice before saying «no»?

Written by: Anna Pykhtina, AEGEE-Kyiv

Thank you to the pictures to Alexandr Smailikov