Earning while learning seems to be a romantic achievement for the working class. A graduating student — surrounded by peers securing market exposure, developing skills, and landing professional roles before even finishing their degrees — naturally desires a career that can support family expenses and grant financial independence. In an era where degrees alone no
longer guarantee employment, a large segment of the youth actively acquires professional skills alongside their academic studies. Higher education institutions, recognizing these market realities, have increasingly made internships mandatory in final semesters.
An internship represents a structured period of work undertaken prior to formal employment to gain hands-on professional experience. While some placements offer compensation, a vast majority remain unpaid — functioning essentially as a modern evolution of apprenticeship. In
medieval times, apprentices lived under a master craftsman to acquire a trade, enduring a subsistence lifestyle until achieving mastery. Today, internships are framed as mutually beneficial arrangements where students build confidence while companies receive labor at minimal or zero cost.
Privileged Experience
Paid internships provide a viable starting point for a career; even when compensation is modest, students are not forced to pay out of pocket to enter the job market. Such programs often cover basic travel or meal expenses, ensuring accessibility regardless of background.
The core issue lies with unpaid internships, which systematically exclude talented individuals who lack financial means. In working-class and lower-middle-class households, young graduates are frequently expected to contribute to monthly household expenditures. When entering the job market, they often find that formal qualifications alone are insufficient without practicalexperience. After investing time, effort, and money into skill development, they are met with relentless demands for prior work experience.
This is where financially stable peers suggest taking unpaid internships to gain industry exposure. Consequently, companies exploit fresh graduates’ desperation for their own profit. Students apply for these positions but are ultimately unable to accept them due to a lack of basic resources. Parents, expecting their children to assume financial responsibility, cannot bear the
added burden of funding their child’s work experience. Thus, the unpaid model creates a stark divide between the affluent and the underprivileged, turning career building into a luxury reserved for those with wealthy backgrounds.
According to research from the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), up to 60% of internships in the country are completely unpaid. This system disenfranchises students who live hand-to-mouth in student accommodations just to cover basic tuition costs. Opportunities that should be awarded on merit and talent instead act as a financial filter. Undergrads from affluent families gain critical industry exposure while their parents cover living, food, and transport costs, while students from rural or lower-income backgrounds are quietly pushed out of the running.
Legal Loopholes
The foundational labor laws in Pakistan — primarily the Factories Act 1934 and the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance 1968 — were designed to protect workers’ rights regarding overtime, workplace health and safety, leave entitlements, and maximum working hours. However, these legal frameworks completely omit regulations
regarding interns.
Corporations routinely exploit this oversight, asserting that interns are not formal “workers” or “employees,” but merely individuals present to learn. By ignoring intern rights, regulatory frameworks allow organizations to bypass basic labor protections. If an intern takes medical leave, their placement can be summarily terminated or arbitrarily extended. Managers can demand extra working hours without additional pay, and formal workplace harassment protections often fail to extend to interns simply because they fall into a legal vacuum —
belonging neither to the employee nor the worker category under the law.
International precedents offer a clear contrast. In France, for example, strict statutory regulations govern intern rights: any internship exceeding two months mandates baseline financial compensation, along with mandatory employer coverage for up to 50% of travel allowances and
meal vouchers. Conversely, domestic policy completely overlooks the economic reality of entry-level trainees. The challenge is further compounded when state institutions themselves recruit unpaid interns, setting a precedent that encourages private corporations to utilize free labor.
Conclusion
Companies offering “experience” as sole compensation engage in economic gatekeeping against struggling students. Every graduate deserves an equal opportunity to succeed, and financial
background should never serve as a barrier to professional growth. Graduating students must understand their rights and resist exploitative practices.
universities must ensure merit-based financial support or stipends for students undertaking mandatory degree-related placements. Talent cannot thrive on an empty stomach; organizations must fairly compensate individuals for their labor and time.