Writing Question:
With the aims to give students hands-on experience and a chance to explore their vocational choices, your school has joined the Project WeCan Job Tasting Programme (internship), which allows students to work in sizable companies during summer vacation. Students are required to go through normal application procedures and are assigned to mentors in their respective work places.

Your class teacher has asked you to write an article for the school magazine outlining why students should participate in an internship.

Unpaid Internships: Pricy or Priceless?

Every university graduate is concerned about his or her academic future, especially nowadays in times of the economic crisis. Graduates are desperate for experience that might distinguish them later from other job applicants and improve their chances of getting their desired jobs. Internships provide valuable experience necessary for jobs and are an important part of the academic career. However, when it comes to internships, the issue of unpaid internships may be raised with opinions differing on the question of the benefits of such unpaid internships.

Many people believe that since a salary does not cover the emerging costs, like living expenses and transportation, unpaid internships turn into a pricy experience that lay an even heavier financial burden on students. Therefore, they regard unpaid internships as detrimental for students. While it is true that unpaid internships can be a costly experience, it does not make them a less beneficial experience. Internships contribute to career development and it has been shown that they provide more opportunities in the job market. In addition to the enrichment of the resume, internships are valuable experiences that enhance the personal development of students. Since internships are a part of education, the costs have to be seen as an investment in the future - as every education is.

While everybody may agree to some extent that internships provide valuable experience, the common objection is that unpaid internships are a heavy financial burden on students. Internships at nonprofit business, government and media are largely unpaid. It’s a fact that students have to pay for food, transportation, and sometimes even housing if they have an internship in a different city. This can be very expensive, since the big firms that provide internships are in expensive cities, New York for example. Therefore, unpaid internships are considered to be more of a burden than a benefit. For some students, the only reasonable reaction is “I would rather have a part-time job rather than an unpaid internship."
     
Of course, it is preferable to get paid for work, but as a matter of fact to offer unpaid internship is often the only possibility for firms to offer internships at all. But most important is that the actual benefit of an internship is not the payment, but better chances in the job market. Although interns might not get paid, they often receive job offers afterwards. Also, it has been shown that college students who obtained an internship during university are more likely to get jobs after graduation and to keep them longer than university students who decided against an internship. Thus, the benefits of internships in the competitive job market are undeniable.

However, internships are not only beneficial for the résumé; in fact, they can enhance the personal development of the intern crucially. First, by serving an internship student can get an insight into the corporate culture that no class in university could ever provide.

Furthermore, the work experience helps students in making decision about majors or specializations and to discover whether the working environment of their field of interest is as they imagined it to be.

Additionally, through working, students also gain a wide range of characteristics that employers are looking for in applicants. Those skills, like “teamwork, time management, prioritization, and management skills” don't only help in receiving a job offer, but are helpful in every situation in life. As the common saying “Experience is the best teacher” expresses, internships can provide a learning environment that can't be created artificially in classrooms. Hence, internships are an important contribution to higher education that should not be rejected because they are unpaid.

Overall, internships may be pricy in the short run, but priceless in the long run for the academic future. Therefore, to make that experience affordable for all students many colleges offer internship scholarships.

4A CAI YANHAO