Private sector abusing internship programme

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Wednesday March 18, 2015 10:18

How should interns who have to work many hours of overtime be compensated? What about those interns who are left with offices to run, or those whose number exceeds that of the organisation’s staff compliment?  These are some of the questions that the Botswana Internship programme hoped to be answered at the stakeholders’ workshop held in Gaborone yesterday.

“Over six years ago the private sector asked the government to establish internship. It was established as a bridging programme that helps our graduates gain experience in the work environment. It is a skills development programme. We want to serve you better,” said National Internship coordinator Boitshepo Bolele.

Bolele explained that her department would now need to ration the number of interns per organisation on the basis of its size and or market rating.

“If organisation X has zero tourism rating [BOTA] how many interns should we give it?” she asked. She said as government they have realised that some companies retrench staff only to replace the employees with interns, an act not allowed under the employment laws. She said companies have the tendency to ask for dozens of interns every time the previous batch matured. This, she said, was obviously a way of avoiding hiring in positions that would otherwise be filled by interns. “If a company applies for 30 interns in a call centre, it trains them and engages them for two years after which they leave and the company applies again for the same number of interns, should we not see that as avoidance by the company to avoid filling positions?” she said.

Bolele added that some companies worked interns overtime in pretty much the same way as they did their full time staff, saying this was wrong.

She noted that with the little allowance they get from the government, interns cannot afford to buy lunch and pay for transport.  However, she applauded companies that requested for interns with a view to training, then absorbing them.

For his part, the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Kgopolo Ramoroka noted that the private sector was a crucial partner in job creation.  He said the internship programme had to date offered over 10,000 internship placements to graduates across all sectors of the economy where at the end of January 2015, 4,912 active interns were placed within the public, private, parastatals sectors and non-governmental organisations. He said the internship programme had over 5,000 applicants on the waiting list, of which over 2,000 were ICT graduates. “Why there are so many interns in waiting is baffling? Is it because they are ahead of the market needs or the market is ahead of the interns training?” he asked.