Generation internship

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Generation internship (or generation precarious ) has stood for an attitude towards life of the younger generation , which many perceive as negative , and who seem to have to pursue increasingly unpaid or underpaid activities in unsecured professional situations.

Origin of the term

The starting point was the following developments on the labor market:

  • Young academics bridge potential gaps in their résumé by taking internship after internship when they are actually looking for permanent employment.
  • Some companies use internship contracts to reduce the risk associated with new hires, as they do not have to renegotiate the legal requirements for protection against dismissal and collective agreements with internship contracts.
  • Some companies abuse highly qualified interns and interns , employ them underpaid or even unpaid, with no intention of creating corresponding positions as regular employees.

For the first time, ZEIT author Matthias Stolz headed a ZEIT article with Generation Praktikum at the beginning of 2005 - based on older terms such as Generation Golf or Generation X , which also stand for life-defining trends of a certain social class of young people and less for the whole Generation to which they mostly belong. The term generation internship came second in the 2006 word of the year . There is now even a company ranking based on the quality of the internships offered. In 2007 the book Generation 1000 Euro by the Italian authors Alessandro Rimassa and Antonio Incorvaia was published. In the novel, which was written as a result of the authors' blog, Rimessa and Incorvaia describe a trainee strike that paralyzes the Italian economy.

Decreased opportunities for academics born in the 1970s to start their careers - namely certain disciplines (in some subjects such as sociology, these have long been trends) - now apply to many university graduates. In relation to the entire generation, they are indeed a minority, on the other hand, young people from other social classes and also from other generations can identify with the term, which is positively colored in so-called momentum (BMFSFJ, p. 34).

job

(Young) academics still largely define their identity through their own profession. You have in mind the ideals of the family home of the previous generation of the 1970s and 1980s and a permanent position as a prerequisite for a stable life. With the further deterioration of the German labor market at the end of the 1990s, the conditions for starting a career worsened for a large number of academics. The expectations of parents and grandparents, on the other hand, remained unchanged.

Caught between their ideal idea of ​​a job and the reality they find themselves, the financial hardship and the insecure paid work, there is no freedom to develop one's own identity / self beyond work. In this way, the children differ significantly from the generation of parents who were characterized by prosperity: They see the difficulties their children have in finding a connection to the world of work as a failure. They react with shame and financial support (DGB-Jugend, p. 9).

There is no record of the extent of these changes. Many university graduates in the social sciences and humanities have long been in a precarious position. In addition, there were architects in the internship generation, some of whom even with several years of professional experience cannot find a permanent position, but move from one underpaid, fixed-term employment relationship to the next. In the case of (certain) engineers, around 90 percent of the time, a regular permanent position takes place immediately after graduation.

University

Structure of the social origin of students in comparison to their age group

The length of time students spend at universities has increased. There is the theory of a prolonged phase of adolescence , which would protect against the reality of working life and the conditions of a poor labor market for a long time. The school days have not prepared enough for working life and the everyday demands of the university. The Abitur puts the adolescents unprepared before choosing a career. This procrastination continued during the course.

According to studies, almost half of the students fail in their first year of study or change their field of study. This theory explains the way universities shape the educational pathway as a reaction to possible deficits in the grammar school. As a result of inadequate preparation, four out of ten drop out of the originally chosen subject. Every fourth student finally drops out.

Any waiting times for a place at university can be bridged by educational measures, a voluntary social year , compulsory military service or community service for men. A minority already do internships in this phase. In some cases these are used for professional orientation. At some universities, general studies are possible as a two-semester orientation phase.

In addition, long periods of study are often the result of fear of missing suitable positions in the non-university area.

Unions

In February 2007, a study by the Free University of Berlin on behalf of the DGB-Jugend provided for the first time (non-representative) figures on how many university graduates are still completing an internship after their studies. 499 graduates from all disciplines of the Free University of Berlin and the University of Cologne, who graduated three and a half years ago at the time of the study, were surveyed. The figures in this study should be viewed critically because only two university locations and only a limited range of subjects were taken into account. The study says that there has been a significant increase in postgraduate internships over the past two years. Compared to the graduate class of 2000, the proportion of graduates who do an internship after completing their studies rose from 25 to 41%. According to the authors of the studies, these internships are often 'covert regular employment'. Only 32% of the respondents stated that learning was the focus of the internship. If work performance is in the foreground, not learning, the employing companies disregard legal provisions and the defined demarcation between an employment relationship and an internship . Exploitation , abuse or self- exploitation are grossly inappropriately low remuneration .

A graduate study by the Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH , which was available in spring 2007, provided representative figures for the total number of internships in Germany : According to it, internships after graduation are neither a mass phenomenon nor a permanent problem after graduation. In its estimate, however , the DGB assumes around 400,000 internship graduates nationwide. Despite the alleged, unsatisfactory situation of “permanent interns”, only a few decisions by labor courts are known to date in which interns, whose work is not adequately remunerated in the long term, defended their employee rights . In the complaint , an additional payment of wages and a subsequent job reference are made the subject matter and the existence of an employment relationship is named as the reason for the complaint. If the court recognizes that wages are usury , the internship contract is considered null and void. There is no record of out-of-court settlement cases . For the first time, an association was founded in 2004 that represents the interests of interns.

The DGB-Jugend and the Fair Work association have submitted a petition to the Bundestag , which provides for internships and similar learning relationships to be clearly differentiated by law from employment relationships so that they do not replace regular positions. In addition, internships are to be limited to three months and paid at least 300 euros per month. The petition was signed by over 60,000 people.

Motifs

The motives of the interns are different. They range from efforts to catch up with the world of work, to close gaps in the résumé, to carelessness or low self-esteem. This process now increasingly affects academics with professional experience. The editor of the career magazine Dorothee Fricke advises university graduates against internships after their studies, as they would damage the CV. “ Anyone who has finished their studies should think about what they are doing ”. Even companies that hire interns on bad terms would cut their own flesh: “ Permanently burying potential applicants with bad internship conditions ” is “ not a good strategy. "

economy

Some employers justify permanent hiring of interns with what they consider to be an inflexible job market. The provisions of the protection against dismissal prevent companies from hiring workers at short notice if necessary and from being able to fire them after a while. This is possible for interns. However, graduates counter this.

The economist and HR specialist Christian Scholz of the University of Saarbrücken sees long-term disadvantages for companies hiring permanent interns, as interns require training phases that draw the resources of the permanent employees away. These resources are no longer available for other tasks. In the long term, the motivation of the employees decreases because new interns have to be instructed again and again.

politics

In a draft law in spring 2010, the Federal Ministry of Labor under Ursula von der Leyen put the privilege of permanent employment arising from internships at disposal and, in the event that an intern is taken on, allows their appointment for a limited period of up to two years. Berlin was the first federal state to adopt a binding regulation on the deployment of interns in the Berlin administration and in state companies.

criticism

One point of criticism of the catchphrase “generation internship” is that there is a lack of reliable data. The studies published in 2004 as part of the graduate panel of the Hochschul-Informations-System GmbH show no significant increase in internships by university graduates before they start their careers. Subsequent publications, which u. A. those concerned with the quality of the completed internships, point out that interns report more and more positive things about their internship and describe 'internship careers' as marginal phenomena. Nevertheless, internship relationships exist that lead to dissatisfaction (be it for example due to the employer's failure to comply with internship plans, lack of support in the company or insufficient demands on the tasks) and are therefore perceived as exploitation or replacement for cheap assistants.

Another point of criticism is that the media often give the impression that this phenomenon is predominant. However, it mainly affects graduates of certain degree programs such as cultural and social sciences. Business, law, engineering, and science programs are less affected. This becomes clear in very few press reports. One possible reason is that the publishing, press, radio and television industries are particularly internship-intensive industries, so those who report are also affected.

Situation in Italy

In Italy , too , the phenomenon of the “Generation Internship” - there called “Generazione 1000” (“1000 Euro Generation”) - has grown into a socially relevant dimension, albeit one that has not yet been publicly debated. Not only the number and importance of internships and stages in companies are striking, but also internships with freelancers (lawyers, auditors, notaries, architects, etc.) come under the microscope. After completing their studies, young graduates are obliged to undertake such an internship under the care of a registered freelancer, usually lasting 2 to 3 years, so that they can only then take the final professional qualification test. Not only is the dependency, the low pay and social security of the interns criticized, as is the case with company internships, but also the creation of professional entry barriers at the expense of this young potential competition. The relevant laws have not only been passed by the Italian Parliament , in which freelancers, especially lawyers, are clearly overrepresented, but they also give the boards of the professional chambers the opportunity to regulate and control internships. This can lead to an excessive foreclosure of job profiles to castes (in Italian casta , is particularly criticized by notaries), in which a few committees throughout Italy regulate access to one's own free profession and thus indirectly the interplay of supply and demand, as well as price formation Affect quality of service. As a rule, once on the other side of the barricade, interns and freelancers submit to the rigid system and understandably use it from then on in their favor. This is also no wonder, because until at least the age of 30 you usually live precariously like a student and often still live in the "Hotel Mama".

In addition, many young people are employed in temporary work , project work and temporary training contracts ( dual training is only available in South Tyrol ).

Situation in Austria

In Austria , more than half (59%) of university graduates complete one or more internships after completing their training (42% complete one internship; 14% even two and 3% more). This was the result of a study carried out by the “Platform Generation Internship”, in which 288 online questionnaires, filled out by students from a wide variety of disciplines, were evaluated. A third of the internships are therefore unpaid, a total of 40% of those surveyed earned between 100 and 700 euros per month, a quarter earned more than 700 euros per month.

Situation in Switzerland

A study carried out by the “Swiss Federal Statistical Office” from 1991 to 2005 came to the conclusion that no “internship generation” had developed among Swiss university graduates since the 1990s.

The development of the internship quota one year after graduation shows no trend over the last 15 years. As a study of the university graduate surveys by the “Swiss Federal Statistical Office” shows, the proportions of employed university graduates fluctuated between 11 and 15% in the observation period between 1991 and 2005. However, these values ​​were always below the 5 percent mark for college graduates. The proportion of interns among women is on average 4.7% higher than that of men. Compared to university graduates, the proportion of interns among technical college graduates has leveled off at a relatively low level since 2001 and has not risen above the 2 percent mark since then. However, not all internships are the same, as the internship phase is an integral part of further training in individual departments. This is especially true for law . If you look at the proportion of interns among university graduates without law, the values ​​for each year of examinations are reduced by almost half and are between 5.7 and 8.1%.

Situation in Greece

The “700 euro generation” in Greece seems to be a similar development. The serious riots by young people in Athens and Thessaloniki in December 2008 are associated with the problems of this Greek “internship generation”. The situation is similar, for example, to that of Greek academics and their colleagues in other countries mentioned above: low income, little prospect of a secure future. 22.7% of 16 to 24 year old Greeks live below the poverty line . Overall, just under 13% of the working population in Greece live below the poverty line.

See also

Fiction

In literary terms, the term generation internship appears in the novel we don't sleep by Kathrin Röggla (2004). The novel documentation Die Lebenspraktikanten (2006) by Nikola Richter deals with the effects of internship on the life of seven typified characters. In 2008 Boris Fust published his “trainee novel” Twelve hours are not a day . Sebastian Christ also talks about life as an intern in ...  and wishes you all the best for the future! (2009).

literature

  • David Bebnowski: Generation and Validity. From the "45s" to the "Internship Generation" - overlooked and established generations in comparison . Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1975-1 .

Web links

Additional information

Newspaper articles and TV reports

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matthias Stolz: Generation internship. In: Die Zeit , March 31, 2005.
  2. ↑ a b Christoph Koch: No intern class representative , interview with Matthias Stolz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 31, 2006
  3. ↑ Company ranking based on the quality of the internships offered
  4. ↑ Generation 1000 Euro ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / oe1.orf.at
  5. ↑ a b c Steffen Kraft: More courage, more anger. ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 2, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stellenmarkt-content.sueddeutsche.de
  6. ^ A b Claudia Klemp: "The intern replaces three employees with a pension entitlement". ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: live-PR.com , May 18, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.live-pr.com
  7. ↑ BMFSFJ: Young people today - active and responsible. ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (PDF), November / December 2002. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.familienhandbuch.de
  8. ↑ Ric Graf: "We boys are too sensible". In: taz.de , May 29, 2006.
  9. ↑ Ostrakosmos: Generation "Quarter Life Crisis". ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NEON Magazine, October 5, 2005 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / neon.stern.de
  10. ↑ nk: career entry with hurdles. In: Die Zeit , June 26, 2003
  11. ^ A b DGB youth: internships for university graduates. February 2006
  12. ↑ Stefan von Borstel, Joachim Peter: The fear of the internship generation. In: Die Welt , March 21, 2006
  13. ↑ Federal Labor Court: Judgment AZ: 6 AZR 564/01.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Orchestra intern, March 13, 2003@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / 212.18.201.36  
  14. ↑ a b BGB: BGB § 138 II. Usury, immoral legal transaction, version of January 2, 2002
  15. ↑ Generation internship. (PDF file)
  16. ↑ rpo: Generation internship. Number of internship graduates, November 21, 2005
  17. ^ Hessian State Labor Court: Judgment AZ: 3 Sa 1818/99. Remuneration in an internship, January 25, 2001
  18. ↑ "Generation Internship" prepares for a counterstrike. ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: heute.de , May 2, 2005 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de
  19. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated May 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heute.de
  20. ↑ Meredith Haaf : Petition calls for permanent employment for interns with university degrees. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 23, 2006
  21. ↑ Generation internship: "For companies, long-term interns are a fiasco". In: Spiegel Online . February 27, 2007, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Poor position for young professionals planned. ( Memento from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Rundschau , March 18, 2010
  23. ↑ spdfraktion-berlin.de ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spdfraktion-berlin.de
  24. ↑ PDF at bmbf.de ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmbf.de
  25. ↑ PDF at bmbf.de ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmbf.de
  26. ↑ a b c d http://www.his.de/pdf/22/generationpraktikum.pdf
  27. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.meinpraktikum.de
  28. ↑ Stefan Rippler: “Generation internship • Working without a cent”. In: Focus-Online , February 1, 2007
  29. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.generation-praktikum.at
  30. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfs.admin.ch
  31. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 29 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.statistics.gr