Fashion Internships: A Shadowy Industry

Due to the specialised nature of retail and fashion, "on the job" training has always been an integral part of the industry. In some cases, apprenticeships are informal, especially in family businesses, but there are still formal internships in the fashion industry.

These internships also turned into internal certification programs, especially in large retailers; retailers could deliver this learning on a larger scale - such as training programs in the United States within Neiman Marcus in Dallas or Macy's in New York. However, as fashion became more corporate and globalised, this informal and formal learning disappeared or moved into a human resources function, leaving a void in the training process.

Parallel to the shift from fashion education to undergraduate programs has come to the growth of internships. Companies collaborate with academic institutions to hire unpaid workers to do menial jobs, with the promise that students will gain real-world experience, training and possibly a job at the end of their internship. In theory, this system would benefit all students, especially if the internship is part of the academic program they study. But in practice, internships have normalised unpaid work that often does not lead to full-time employment and have mainly favoured the more economically advantaged students.

First, the practices have largely favoured the better off for several reasons. The first is that students with more financial means have a stronger network of acquaintances. It is often through their parents that they can access internships in general or the best opportunities to do their internships. The second is that since internships are linked to academic credits (legalising unpaid work), students essentially pay for their internships. So students must decide between paying for an internship or paying for another elective not to increase their base tuition. Those with more money can do both more easily. And the third reason is that many students often have to work to pay their tuition. Doing an internship in addition to studying and having a paid job is almost impossible. Also, it is rare for schools to allow paid work to count as internships, and if they do, then students are essentially paying to work at their jobs and not benefiting from additional courses in their major that they could take at school.

As an additional barrier, many students choose schools in cities where living and studying costs are high. The result is that students with greater economic means have more opportunities to do professional practices and, therefore, to obtain a job upon graduation. This means that the pipeline of new employees in the industry does not match the diversity of the student population, thus perpetuating problems of lack of diversity and even more sensitive ones such as systemic racism within the retail and hospitality industries.

Additionally, the internship market has become increasingly competitive with the exponential growth of fashion programs and fashion students. Therefore, companies can raise the requirements for hiring an intern. It's not uncommon to see job descriptions for internships that resemble a first or second full-time paid job. The perfect example of this was the McQueen internship scandal in 2013, which was looking for a highly qualified designer to be an intern, and with the economy shifting to technology, many companies are taking advantage of digital native students to support specific areas of their business, like social media, instead of hiring full-time paid employees.

In the United States, this has an additional layer of complexity. Due to workers' rights laws for students from other countries, internships are also part of a deeper conversation about higher education in general. For example, it is not unusual for international students in the United States to obtain Optional Internship Training, known as OPT, to extend their stay in the country to land a job and a longer visa. This has turned universities into a means to achieve a greater goal beyond education, generating a deeper conversation about the purpose of internships.

Due to these kinds of problems, the spotlight has been put on the shady internship industry. States like New York have enacted laws to ensure greater transparency in internship programs, requiring compensation or credits in exchange for work. The UK has a law against unpaid internships, and while these measures have helped to some extent, the reality for students remains largely the same, suggesting that students need to be provided with more meaningful "on-the-job" learning experiences and fundamental skills, along with a pathway to paid employment.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.es and and it was translated by Andrea Byrne.