Local Government Internship: Opportunity or Exploitation?

Despite the evident increasing unemployment rates, particularly youth unemployment, the South Africa’s graduate labour force continues to grow. Recent studies show the devastating figures of graduate unemployment which grow alongside the overall unemployment rates in South Africa. Undoubtedly, unemployment mostly affects young graduates who recently graduated from higher learning institutions. Thus, internships are increasingly recognised as a bridge through which graduates can transition from higher learning institutions to the labour market. However, whether internships are good or bad for young graduates remains a debatable question. Therefore, this paper is drawn from the perspectives of young graduate interns to determine whether internship presents real opportunities for career development of young graduates or it is merely used as an exploitative tool by employers. This study adopted a qualitative approach where a total of thirty graduate interns from eThekwini Municipality participated in the semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results indicate that most graduate interns viewed the local government internship programme as exploitative. Further results show that graduate interns are generally underpaid yet overworked in the local government internship. Workplace abuse and the lack of access to resources were reported as major challenges faced by graduate interns. These results symbolise the exploitative nature of internship programmes at the local government level. Therefore, this paper recommends appropriate systems, policies, and workplace rules to improve local government internships. Received: 23 May 2023 / Accepted: 19 January 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024