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[eng] The interns: this disenchanted generation Y
Published on
Translation by:
Joana Domingues
Cafébabel Brussels’s Reply to Madame Figaro: it is not by ridiculing (a part of) the Generation Y that young people will have more prospects.
If some employers could choose they would recruit trainees for life
They blow before their umpteenth refused application: "not enough experience", "other candidates have a more suitable profile” ... Generation Y wants future prospects. It is not by forcing them to accept an internship that they will go out of precariousness.
Long gone are the days when an internship was a professional launching pad for students / graduates. A blessed time where the internship was a "period of learning, training and development" which, after good and loyal services, could lead to a job worthy of the name.
A period that seems definitely over, at a time where some employers do not hesitate to replace the starting positions for employees by internships. The salary is divided by three or four (if not completely eliminated) while the selection criteria and responsibilities remain higher. These employers use the pretext of "crisis" to reduce costs and thereby div much of Generation Y in precariousness.
This phenomenon is particularly striking in the "European bubble": young people from all over Europe flock to Brussels hoping to get the job of their dreams. Competition is fierce: the demand is much higher than the supply on the European labor market. This generation Y, that is usually multilingual and has a master degree, is ready to accept precarious work conditions: on the 4.5 million trainees in Europe, 60% are unpaid and 40% do not even have a contract.
For many of them, unfortunately this dream turns into disillusionment. After accumulating several internships, they are forced (lack of money) to return empty-handed to their country of origin, because no employer offers them a stable job.
In short, Madame Figaro would do better denouncing the fate of a disenchanted generation that needs to be supported, rather than ridiculing a part that does not represent it.
Translated from Les stagiaires : cette génération Y désenchantée