Applied Research Or Cheap Labor?
from the just-wondering... dept
The Globe and Mail is running an article about how Canadian colleges are increasingly offering “applied research” opportunities, that get students involved with industry to try to take on certain issues. The benefits seem pretty clear. The students get some real world experience in tackling very real problems. The firms involved get the insight of some (hopefully) intelligent students who may have a unique perspective on how to solve certain problems. In many cases, the local community can benefit too, depending on the problem solved (the article talks about alternative energy sources, for example). However, there’s still something about the article that makes it sound like this is just a way for companies to get cheap labor out of students for their own benefit. Maybe that’s fine, given the circumstances (cheap labor in exchange for a good learning experience), but it seems like some people might find it questionable.
Comments on “Applied Research Or Cheap Labor?”
Since when
is this newsworthy? Internships have been a part of high school and college life for decades.
Re: Since when
It’s not quite internships that they’re talking about. These are situations where they’re taking a company’s specific issues directly into the classroom.
I don’t think it’s a problem, personally, but I could see how some would.
Nothing wrong here
If a student objects to being “exploited”, they are free to not participate, simple as that.
Given the horrible time I had finding work after I graduated, I have little sympathy for people who are “above that sort of thing” and expect that their degree or their grades really gets them anywhere.
Companies don’t want fresh graduated – a Bachelor’s degree is too vague and too easy to make you of immediate use. If I were a HR manager and needed a junior employee, I would always pick the one that spent a few terms in a business environment and already knew the political basics, if not the technical basics.
Cheap Labor
Having worked with “Interns” or other sources of “free” labor, they ain’t always free.
An intern will typically consume 10% of my time each week and I do not realize a return of any kind. My interns are usually app developers and the amount of time I need to explain how to do something usually exceeds what it would have taken me to do it myself.
It is good for company branding and usually about one in five I wind up hiring after they graduate. And one in five I recommend they find a new profession that doesn’t involve code.
Re: Cheap Labor
So in other words, 3 out of 5 interns spread the word that you are a mediocre employer, and 1 out of 5 spreads the word that you really suck. 😉