Most university students are intent on acquiring an internship. The extra experience could look impressive on one’s resume and some students hope to get a permanent position after their intern term is over. However, according to recent statistics, it is questionable whether the youth intern program is a useful policy.

   An average internship for a current student can last for about a month, and in the case of graduates, from 6-12 months. Companies have an obligation to educate interns with certain skills and divide a certain amount of work among them, but this is not as easy as it sounds. It would be difficult to feel worthwhile passing on know-how to an intern who could be gone after a few months. This leads to leaving only very simple tasks to the interns. This only one makes for a poor use of time on the interns’ part, and also for the company as well.

   Certain media sources have reported that small businesses are using the government’s youth intern program effectively and that it is helping to create new workplaces. Of course there actually may be some people who have benefited from the program. However, According to a government assembly woman’s documents, only 31% of the people who earned a permanent position were still at their jobs after a year had passed. The reason is that the government only supports new personnel expenses for up to 1 year and after that term is over, small businesses don’t feel the need to keep their new employees.

   This sort of youth internship program was first introduced in 1999 but was abolished due to various side effects. It was started again in 2008, but side effects do not seem to have been resolved. In fact, the government is giving full marks in the ‘youth employment’ section to public institutions that fills 4% of its employees with youth interns. They even suggest giving permanent positions to 20% of the interns, but the manner in which they are recruited, or what sort of tasks they are assigned to, are not targets of evaluation. This makes it far too easy for companies to use their interns for a set amount of time and dispose of them.

   It is a fact that for every 10,000 youth interns that come about, the youth unemployment rate decreases by about 0.2-0.3%, but the decrease is only temporary and superficial. The government seems to be fooling the public with numbers, when they should be busy making radical changes to the system in order to actually make good use of our youth.

 

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