Students canoeing for internship allowance

Students canoeing for internship allowance

According to the Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg, students have water up to their necks when it comes to internship fees. That is why the organisation sailed in a boat through Utrecht’s canals together with the youth of the trade union CNV.

On Friday morning, two students paddled in a kayak behind a motorboat containing the directors of the ISO and the union’s two youth branches. The administrators held up a stick with a bag attached that had a euro sign on it.

^{(Photo: Bas de Meijer)}

The message: students do have to row very hard for their money and an internship allowance could bring relief. ISO president Demi Janssen: “Every intern deserves the chance to do an internship without worries. Because of unpaid internships, students who were already tight on money get further into debt or have to work their asses off to make ends meet.”

Earlier, the union and the ISO started a petition to make internship fees compulsory. So far, almost ten thousand have signed the petition.
That internship compensation is not the norm is shown by several studies. This week, a survey showed that one in four university of applied sciences interns do not receive an internship allowance. Teacher training students in particular often have to make do without. More than half of university students also receive nothing, was revealed last year. (HOP, PvT)