Lack of paid internships creates hiring bottlenecks
It’s gotten so hard to find skilled welders, the factory managers at Dynamic Manufacturing Solutions in Austin, Texas, hung a bell on the wall so they could celebrate their new hires.
No wonder they were excited, given that their lack of welders has become the single most-inhibiting factor on the company’s growth, according to CEO Robb Misso. If 20 qualified applicants walked in tomorrow, Misso said, they could put them all to work and probably take on more of the business they’ve had to turn down in recent months.
In today’s job market, even entry- or junior-level job postings often require several years of experience, or at least ask applicants to display a certain level of technical skill. More companies expect incoming workers to develop those talents before applying.
Those demands have put a heightened premium on internships and apprenticeships, and officials at all levels of government are starting to put a greater emphasis behind them. President Trump in June issued an order to help expand apprenticeship programs nationwide in hopes of boosting more middle-skill, middle-wage job opportunities in manufacturing and other industries.
Traffic job portals with internship postings appear to underscore two different bottlenecks in different sectors.
On one hand, many students and workers seeking high-skill, white-collar internships aren’t finding enough opportunities. On the other, many of the factories and firms offering traditionally blue-collar internships or apprenticeships can’t find enough applicants.
That’s of particular concern for workforce and higher-education officials, who stress the importance of earn-and-learn opportunities for low-income students and workers who can’t afford to take off blocks of time without income.
“The issue of unpaid internships, which has been the model that’s been dominant for a long time, is really unfair to an awful lot of poor people because poor students can’t work for free,” said Raymund Parades, Texas Commissioner of Higher Education. “They need to be paid. They need to be compensated.”
Parades said he’d like to see a refashioning of earn-and-learn opportunities, one that streamlines work and education throughout a career. These days, he said, it’s not uncommon for young workers to go through multiple different careers, not just different employers.
But that would take a better understanding of the challenges from both educators and businesses. For example, professors understanding the financial and work requirements of students, and employers understanding the joint school-work priority of their interns.
Parades said some of that understanding was lost when the pendulum swung too far toward an emphasis on four-year degrees for everyone. Yet, even in countries with especially strong apprenticeship programs, such as Switzerland, that bias remains.
Harvard University education professor Robert Schwartz recently recalled a time when he gathered a panel of about 10 Swiss CEOs and asked whether they’d gone through the country’s vaunted apprenticeship program or a university system. The breakdown was about 50-50, he said.
Yet, even with the country’s well-regarded apprenticeship culture, he said, most Swiss parents still say they prefer an academic track for their own children. And it’s worse in the U.S., where apprenticeship programs are less common and typically regarded as something less than an academic track.
“We’re way behind the world leaders in this regard,” Schwartz said, “not even in the same ballpark.”