The Student Voice

Millennials aren’t choosy. We’d love to work full-time. But trying to start a career, for many, means taking on unpaid ‘internships’

Students who can afford to live in the intern capitals — D.C., New York and Los Angeles — often rely on help from their parents and loans for rent.

Students who complete internships at university are better at managing their careers and are satisifed with their career choices, research shows.

The federal government's new Prepare, Trial and Hire Scheme, shortened erroneously to "PaTH", will have see jobseeking young people aged 15-24 offered internships for between four and 12 weeks in exchange for $200 a week on top of their usual jobseeker allowance. On paper it sounds great: young people doing it tough, getting a foot in the door with an employer. In reality it's the devaluing of young people, and the creation of a second class of workers, paid well below minimum wage and only valuable to business as long as the government keeps footing the bill.

Internships can have direct and indirect costs that may exclude some who can't afford them.