To be honest, I don’t really see these kinds of comments criticising young organisations that likely have access to limited amounts of funding to be helpful. I think there are some valid issues to be discussed, but I’d much rather see them discussed at an ecosystem level. Sure, it’s less than ideal that low-paid internships provide an advantage to those from a particular class, but it’s also easier for wealthier people to gain a college degree as well, I think it’d be a mistake for us to criticise universities for offering college degrees. At least with these internships, you’re being paid something, as opposed to accruing debt, so they’re actually much more accessible than the comparative.
But I suppose this doesn’t address my real objection which is that there are people who are willing to work to make the world better and an organisation that is willing to provide them with some financial support to make it happen. In return, these people gain the opportunity to develop new skills and if these interns are particularly talented, they are likely to be referred on to further opportunities. They might even change the course of someone’s career: someone who was just going to go into the business world might end up having a highly impactful career instead.
So I guess it just feels like that given how many benefits there are, we should have a really high bar for standing in the way of things. And I don’t really feel that this is met here. There’s so much that is horrible in the world, but we have the opportunity to change that. And if that involves a large number of 1000 EURO/month internships, well, that seems like an incredibly low price to pay.
To be honest, I don’t really see these kinds of comments criticising young organisations that likely have access to limited amounts of funding to be helpful. I think there are some valid issues to be discussed, but I’d much rather see them discussed at an ecosystem level. Sure, it’s less than ideal that low-paid internships provide an advantage to those from a particular class, but it’s also easier for wealthier people to gain a college degree as well, I think it’d be a mistake for us to criticise universities for offering college degrees. At least with these internships, you’re being paid something, as opposed to accruing debt, so they’re actually much more accessible than the comparative.
But I suppose this doesn’t address my real objection which is that there are people who are willing to work to make the world better and an organisation that is willing to provide them with some financial support to make it happen. In return, these people gain the opportunity to develop new skills and if these interns are particularly talented, they are likely to be referred on to further opportunities. They might even change the course of someone’s career: someone who was just going to go into the business world might end up having a highly impactful career instead.
So I guess it just feels like that given how many benefits there are, we should have a really high bar for standing in the way of things. And I don’t really feel that this is met here. There’s so much that is horrible in the world, but we have the opportunity to change that. And if that involves a large number of 1000 EURO/month internships, well, that seems like an incredibly low price to pay.