Internships where you pay to work?

Forums:
Email this Topic • Print this Page

My daughter sent me a link to an internship that she thought she might want to do next summer. It was in another state so she would need housing during this internship also reading it and knowing it was a non-profit I could gather that it would not pay (which is fine because most you can get some class credits for it).

So I asked if they provided housing as if you work for free then some internships provide basic housing - she said yes, but you have to pay for it. And then she said you have to pay to intern.

I said really? So you pay someone money to work for them and then you have to pay for own housing? I know they provide training, but you are working! That is why there are many internships where you do not get paid.

I told her I would not pay someone for you to work for them - she would have to do it herself. When I was in college - you could get paid or unpaid internships - I never heard of one where you paid some one money do work. Have you ever heard of this?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 365 • Replies: 5

No top replies

Yes I have. A friend went to a foreign country to help villagers set up schools. She had to pay for this “ volunteer” experience. The fee paid for the transportation there, housing and food they gave her while she “experienced” their culture. I found it odd, too.

2 Replies

@PUNKEY,

No this is beyond paying for the transportation, the housing and food - they need to pay to work on top of that.

So it is out of state - a good 20 hours out of state - so potential airfare, housing and food for the entire summer and then a fee to work there.

0 Replies

It seems to really be a growing thing. I'm hearing from my colleagues with young adult children in university that it's coming up in some programs. Apparently the thing they hate the most is when universities then also make people pay a fee (around $1000 US) for the credit they get, even though their kids don't necessarily get a faculty advisor during the process. so they're asked to pay for room/board/fee to work + fee for credit. No one that I know personally has agreed to long-distance out of town unpaid internships as they're not willing to pay the flight costs. the furthest that I know of (in our immediate group) is about a three hour drive so they just drove them over, dropped them off and saw them again a month later. the best gig is if they can find a local internship so at least there are no moving costs.

It doesn't seem to come up in college programs here the same way. Those programs seem to have good paid internship/co-op setups.

1 Reply

@PUNKEY,

It is quite common here with charities/non-profit organisations.
More than 50 years ago, school friends did it regularly: it was the cheapest method to go to a foreign country, meet new foreign friends, see a lot and do some charity as well for a low price. (That were camps for building and renovating council houses, youth centres, etc)
Today, their are even more possible work camps than when I was young.

Internships (= working when at university on a subject you study) are paid, however, often just with "pocket money", some large firms pay nothing.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

Well there are ones that are nearby that she could participate in.

I pointed some out to her. I asked a friend who is a director of a non-profit, they "hire" interns to they charge them? She said no. They will charge them nominal fee if they require housing (to help the cost of utilities and so forth) but they do not charge them to intern with them. She also warned me of some that do so and then the intern learns little to nothing (most of these are out of the country) - she said they charge payment to these interns to fund their research but really do nothing for the interns. So she said to watch out.

She also gave me several places locally that are good learning internship without pay (but also without payment).

0 Replies

Forums
» Internships where you pay to work?

Read Question
Reply to All

Internships where you pay to work?

Quick Links

My Account

able2know