College Fix contributor and recent Hillsdale College grad Katy Bachelder has a piece out this week in the Wall Street Journal, arguing against a recent court ruling that a company must pay its student interns:
Internships are an investment of time and labor to reach a desired end. When only 11% of human-resources administrators rated the millennial generation as “hard working,” according to a recent survey by career network Beyond.com, an internship is also a chance to show a little hustle.
The primary value of an internship isn’t the small amount of money that even the paid positions offer. It’s to help students land a job when 80% of hires happen through networking, according to a 2012 ABC News report. Most companies and organizations are careful to make sure that internships go to young people from diverse backgrounds—providing networking opportunities that were once available strictly to the offspring of the well-connected.
According to an April Reuters poll, nearly 40% of college graduates are underemployed, working in positions that don’t require a bachelor’s degree and often struggling to pay off student loans. So “intern advocates” ought to be advocating for more internships—unpaid or barely paid…
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