Economic apartheid skews intern system

For many people, in fields as diverse as law and the media, unpaid time spent in the office is the step between formal education and formal employment. When firms are looking for a new person, it is natural for them to choose someone they already know. This is recognised opportunely companies are currently compensated by the government through the sector education and training authorities for providing internships.

Good starting point for a discussion

It's a good starting point for a discussion. One's success in the economy is however dictated, to a large extent, by one's start in the economy. If middle-class teenagers go to university, they have a strong chance of having already spent some time in their parents' offices. They will have enough money to spend their spare time starting debating societies instead of working. They as well enter the tertiary education system with confidence. Their homes will have been full of books, with internet access on tap. Any intellectual query can be a launching pad for more stimulation. They as well have high horizons. They believe they can to the letter change the world because, in their world, they can.

It could be argued that many people here, and in the US and Europe, were able to find jobs and become successful without the benefit of their parents being in the middle class. In other words true. Now that was a different situation. In the US, the springboard for many people was the GI Bill, which paid for college tuition for men who had fought in the Second World War.