Employers Need to Give Interns and Graduates a Fair Chance

• ASSER L N NAKALE

MOST PEOPLE dream of being employed and, most importantly, being able to put bread on the table.

At a time of global and economic uncertainty, not only are jobseekers desperate, but it appears that some employers are using the situation to ensure that jobs are done for as little remuneration as possible.

Jobs are scarce but employers are asking for a crazy number of years of experience, even for entry level positions – possibly, in part, to deter the number of people applying, and to simplify the recruitment process.

This leaves little room for graduates who do not have the required experience.

Internships and job attachments are some of the platforms which offer students and unemployed graduates an opportunity to gain experience.

While some employers offer internships with genuine intentions, others take advantage of desperate students and unemployed youths.

In some cases, interns get an allowance which is only enough to cover their transport. Others get nothing at all.

The bottom line is that interns don’t get compensated as deserved.

As if that is not enough, some interns are assigned to take on responsibilities beyond their fields of specialisation.

Some, especially unemployed graduates, have the necessary skills in their respective fields, and employers are aware of their capabilities, but they do not get appropriately compensated because of being “just interns”.

Believe me, as less experienced as these interns might be, they add value to the team. Those internship opportunities are created because there is a need.

Organisations should stop treating interns like they do not contribute to organisational goals.

Interns are relevant and their contributions go a long way.

I am not proposing that interns be paid the same as permanent employees, but they deserve to be compensated according to their capabilities, efforts and contribution.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Another approach which appears to have gained traction among employers is the contract system.

Contract work usually involves time-sensitive jobs carried out for a fixed period.

Under normal circumstances, this type of employment is created because the required professional expertise, knowledge or contribution is needed only for a limited time, perhaps for a specific project, to cover for people who go on leave or to transfer knowledge to a certain team.

Unlike permanent employees who are eligible for company benefits, such as medical insurance among others, contract employees do not receive these benefits.

In some cases, employers have employees on contract for positions which could be filled by a permanent employee so that they don’t have to pay benefits and in so doing, save money.

Another approach is one that seems to occur more commonly in the public sector. It involves creating a job description which does not match the job title.

Here is an example: An employer needs someone to carry out the duties of an archivist, but they do not want to pay the salary of an archivist.

What they do is advertise a position, with a job description similar to that of an archivist, but give it the title of a lower-grade job like ‘assistant admin’.

Qualified archivists will apply for the position based on its description and are more than likely to get it because they are qualified.

This means that a qualified archivist would then be hired to execute duties the same as those of an archivist, but on the salary of an ‘assistant admin’.

LET’S DO BETTER

On a different note, the number of years experience required for entry positions are worrying.

It is disturbing that for an entry position, an applicant is sometimes required to have up to three years’ experience, while the longest a student can possibly be offered an internship opportunity is usually one year.

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