DEVOIR 1 ANGLAIS BTS CGO

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Part 3

There is no official records of paid and unpaid internships, that is something that is hard to mesure and the number of unpaid internships is increasing due to the economic context: employers trying to lower the work force costs and the need of students to gain experience.

Part 4

Interviews show that most of the time the work done during internships have nothing to do with the students skills, and involve menial works and drudgeries that will not make the student progress. Also most of the interviewees declined to give their identities to avoid any aftermaths for their career.

Part 5

Unis make efforts to make higher education available for the majority of the students but internships undercuts that effort and put the less richer students at a disadvantage cause they don’t have many connections and most of the times they cannot afford to spend time for unpaid work considering the fact that they have to support themselves, their families and pay for their studies.

Part 6

Intern are not considered real employee and if a problem arise they are not protected by the law and are more vulnerable to issues like harassment.

Résumé

The document entitled “Labors Officials scrutinize a rise in unpaid” is an article from The Global Edition of The NY Times in April 2010, written by Steven Greenhouse.

The journalist is trying to point out the difficulties the interns are facing within the current economical situations of the United States. He mentioned the fact that graduates are usually not treated as they should and that authorities and officials are also trying to intervene and take action against outlaw’s employers.

First of all, some companies use internships for free labor. That is why officials ordered investigations and are trying to enforce strikes on outlaws’ employers nationwide. But the fear of many interns to file complaints makes this harder. Laws are here to define the criteria where an employer can hire an intern and not pay him. That is actually against the law. Due to the need for student to gain quick experience for their résumés, the number of unpaid internships is rising every year, and that is really problematic.

Which worries the officials is that most of the times the internship has nothing to do with their area of expertise and involve menial work which concerned students about their future job prospects. For example, one came forward without giving their name and explained that instead of learning skills in animation, her experiences at Little Airplane was to wipe the door handles each day to avoid the spread of swine flu.

The most worrisome point is that these unpaid internships aggravate inequalities between students. The number of low-income students going to universities has increased but the fact that internships in general are more open to rich students, due to their connections, undercuts that fact and put those students at a clear disadvantage. Plus less rich students can’t obviously afford to spend time doing an unpaid internship because they have to help their parents, support themselves and pay for their studies.

Furthermore, interns are not considered like real employees, and therefore are not protected by employment discrimination laws and against sexual harassment. For example, a female intern made a complaint for sexual harassment and her case was dismissed.

To conclude, this article reflects all the problems that graduates have to handle during their internships. That emphasis the fact that companies take advantage of them and that they are clearly not in compliance with the laws. Those issues are pointed out by officials and they are trying to take actions and come to a solution.