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Tianna Sanders

Professor Brody

ENG 301

March 13, 2019

Internships and what caused them

To be able to talk about what were the causes of an internship there needs to be a brief

talk about the history of the internship process. Before the internship program, there had been

what was called an apprenticeship around the 11th century, this began under the gilded system

(Taylor, 2014). An apprentice is, “a person who works for another in order to learn a trade and a

person legally bound through indenture to a master craftsman in order to learn a trade”

("Apprenticeship" 1955). A guild is “an organization of persons with related interests, goals, etc.,

especially one formed for mutual aid or protection. Also, many of the various medieval

associations such as the merchants or artisans are organized to maintain standards” (“Guild”

1995). This all began in the agricultural field when the work in the field required less workers

because their methods started to get more and more advanced. Apprenticeships and the guild had

worked hand to hand. The apprentice would ask the guild master to teach them the methods and

techniques of their trade.

This was the first sight of an unpaid internship because the apprentice was not allowed to

receive wages and they were not allowed to be married, but they had to live with the master for a

long period of time. In time being an apprentice finally pays off when the apprentice becomes a

guild and is allowed to get married and make their own money. The apprentice system didn’t die

out till the industrial revolution (Taylor,2014). The Industrial revolution was:
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“the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760

in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools

with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration

of industry in large establishments” ("Industrial Revolution" 1955).

Then came vocational training in the 18th and the 19th century, which taught workers

skills to work in factories (Taylor,2014). Vocational training is “training that emphasizes skills

and knowledge required for a particular job function (such as typing or data entry) or a trade

(such as carpentry or welding) (“vocational training” 2019). That was when everything started to

evolve. Apprenticeship reappeared in the 1800 and the 1900 but this time the guiled turned in to

employers that no longer housed their apprentice, the length of the program was reduced

significantly, and the apprentices started to get paid for their work, (Taylor,2014). [This history

is some of what made our version of an internship so important today.]( what claim can I make)

But there is a lot of causes that also made internships what they are today that no one thinks

about on a daily basis. [The first cause would be an internee’s confidence level.](what claim can

I make) For instance, the intern courses at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and

University of California, Davis (UC Davis). They took a survey on their internship programs and

they found out that their program provides students, “with career development skills, while

increasing students’ confidence in career exploration and decision making” (Schnoes, et al.

2018). Which confidence level is an important factor to have in an internship or a career because

it could open up a lot of doors in the future and will attract more individuals that\ wanting to

learn? High confidence could also help figure out what field of work that is of high interest in the

future. Ultimately the internship program gives the individual the confidence to pursue the career

they always dreamed of having. It is also found that confident interns won’t go after more
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education without making clear goals for themselves. Internships can also affect the decision-

making process. “There is evidence that students interested in science careers beyond academic

research have lower confidence in their ability to make career decisions,” (Schnoes, et al. 2018).

That is what the UCSF and UC Davis intern programs try to fix. Ultimately if a student isn’t

given the option to boost their confidence level through internships then chances are their

communication skills have the chance to suffer too.

The next cause that no one really thinks about on a daily basis and could affect a

student’s ability later on in their job hunt would be communication skills portrayed by nursing

students. The article Communication Skills Count says that communication skills are key and

when these skills are lacking then the patient’s health could possibly be at risk. “Five years after

the release of the Francis report (2013) poor communication continues to be associated with

serious failings of care such as the those found at Liverpool Community Health” (Davies, 2019).

Which I totally agree with this because many nurses definitely do need to communicate and ask

their patients what they need, they expect them to automatically communicate to them. If they

don’t communicate properly how would they know what treatment the patient needs or is

getting, how will they know what the patient’s diagnosis would be, how would they know what

medicine the patient needs to take to get better. If they are not communicative how would they

expect someone else to communicate with them?

“Francis highlighted the need for communication skills to be taught as part of nurse

education. At university, student nurses gain the theoretical underpinnings of good

communication skills that are demonstrated contextually on practice placements. The nurses that

students encounter while on placement set the standards of clear communication that positively

impact patient outcomes,” (Davies, 2019).

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This could also go for any field of study. For example, if an individual worked for a

random lab and they discover a strand of a virus that is dangerous to the human population and

that individual did not communicate to the CDC, which is the Center for Disease Control then

you have probably just accidentally let millions of people die. The CDC is:

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a federal agency that

conducts and supports health promotion, prevention and preparedness activities in the United

States, with the goal of improving overall public health. Established in 1946 and based in

Atlanta, the CDC is managed by the Department of Health and Human Services” ("What is

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? - Definition from WhatIs.com").

This could also go for a teacher and notifying the principle and the parents of a child’s

behavior in class. If they don’t communicate to the right people how could they expect things to

change or continue to get better. We also have to keep in mind that communication could also be

used negatively. What is meant by this is that words could be used to hurt someone rather than to

encourage or help another person. One example the article used was:

“I have witnessed many a disgruntled nurse complaining about a wide range of

issues when on a break. Depersonalization of staff is also something I've noticed, with

nurses referring to colleagues by their pay band rather than by name or job title, creating

divisions and hierarchy in the workplace. I have become accustomed to being referred to

as ‘the student’; an impersonal label reminding me of my place in the organizational

hierarchy. Occasionally, I have observed more destructive forms of communication such

as backbiting and criticizing colleagues” (Davies, 2019).

Now there is one last cause that is going to be addressed in this paper.
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The last cause that is going to be addressed in this paper is unpaid internships, this is

going to be talked about by a Canadian woman. The article starts out, the topic of unpaid

internships for university students and recent graduates entering the job market is proliferating in

US and Canadian news and popular culture (Bellafante, 2012; Carey, 2013; Wayne, 2013;

CBC News, 2014), especially related to their ethical and legal status. One humorous example is

from HBO's acclaimed series Girls, when twenty-something Hannah Horvath, approaches her

boss Alistair at the New York magazine where she is an intern, and quietly declares: ‘My

circumstances have changed, and I can no longer afford to work for free’ ("Hungry for the Job:

Gender, Unpaid Internships, and the Creative Industries" 2019) This tv show gave a good

example of a true way to deal with talking to a boss about an unpaid internship, because the

internee needs to have confidence and good communication skills to better propel forward in

their interns. This quote alone better describes the hardships of being in an unpaid internship in

today’s society. Unpaid internships in many different sectors have increased drastically over 10

years and, “The National Association of Colleges and Employers documented an exponential

increase in internships in the United States from 17 per cent of graduating students in 1992 to

over 50 per cent in 2008, with ‘some experts estimate that one-fourth to one-half are unpaid’

(Greenhouse, 2010)” ("Hungry for the Job: Gender, Unpaid Internships, and the Creative

Industries" 2019). In today’s society there is no such thing as not working if there is no financial

support from the parental group, life would be very difficult.

Refutation
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Work cited

Davies, Jeremy. “Communication Skills Count.” British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen
Publishing), vol. 27, no. 11, 2018, p. 650.

Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/.

Schnoes, Alexandra M, et al. “Internship Experiences Contribute to Confident Career Decision

Making for Doctoral Students in the Life Sciences.” CBE Life Sciences Education,
American Society for Cell Biology, 2018,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6007763/.

Taylor, John A. “A Brief History of the Internship.” Taylor Research Group, Taylor Research
Group, 4 Feb. 2014, www.taylorresearchgroup.com/news/2017/4/5/a-brief-history-of-the-
internship.
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