An internship (like an apprenticeship for vocational training) is supposed to emphasize on the job training, thus making it easier to land a job after it’s over. But as any budding graduate will tell you this is often light years away from the truth in Nepal. Our internship hopefuls often find themselves saddled with mundane jobs owing to the underwhelming development of Nepal’s private sector coupled with the huge demand for internship spots.
While a few organizations do give these young people an opportunity to learn, the truth is that most of them seize the chance to use these interns as glorified peons. To be fair to the organizations, they don’t go around asking for interns and the supply is mostly dictated by the internship component that is incorporated in most academic courses so as to make them ‘practical’.
However, the only practical things they learn are how to do the filing, photocopying, supervising register entries, acting as couriers, and even bringing around the tea in the worst cases. All well and good if you plan to open a photocopying shop or a tea stall, but not ideal for those actually looking for an insight into their chosen careers or meaningful exposure in their particular field of work.
Is it any wonder then that the students see it as a worthless formality that has to be endured rather than enjoyed? What is supposed to be a golden opportunity thus becomes a charade which is geared towards producing a report to fulfil academic requirements rather than actually setting up a foundation to a permanent job. It’s a pity because, if handled properly, interns can be a valuable source of human resources for an organization is in a much better position to judge a person’s ability or lack thereof over three months of work than just a 15 minute job interview, which is accorded much more emphasis here.
This lack of opportunity to learn and grow is not just confined to interns but it’s pervasive and emblematic of our whole jobs market where the demand lags far behind supply. Even when jobs do come out, barring the odd clutch of ‘age specific’ financial services jobs, it is extremely prohibitive for young graduates.
How much does a train cost?
We have all seen the adverts for even junior positions with excessive requirements that deflate even the most optimistic graduate. You are required to have a million years of experience, published three books on the subject, scaled Everest twice and stood for candidate as a prime minister before you can even think of applying for it. This is as paradoxical as a Catch 22 situation can possibly get. You are supposed to possess experience without anyone willing to taking a chance on you, and conversely you can’t seem to find any work without experience.
Even if you are an overachiever meeting all the above criteria you’ll be lucky to find a job without someone having a ‘source’ trying to muscle their way into the job. In some adverts they might as well write ‘Candidates without a source need not apply’. Even the government’s reverse discrimination policy does not help certain graduates who want to enter the civil service. So being a male Bahun/Chettri graduate is tantamount to being a third class male passenger on the sinking titanic. You should be very optimistic not to lose heart.
In some cases, the blame can be laid on the students themselves and there are always exceptions when one is generalizing on a certain issue. An argument can be made for the way we raise our children. We cocoon them, spoon feed them everything, and the result is that a lot of them grow up not appreciating the value of hard graft. There are those impatient ones who want everything instantly and then those that don’t want to work at just any job.
But that is a tiny proportion of the young and inexperienced who are keen to work and learn for their benefit and that of the nation. It is these people that need to be given their break which a lot of organizations seem hesitant to do. Our companies, on the one hand, are eager to jump on the youth bandwagon while, on the other hand, they balk at the prospect of taking calculated risks on these novices. This is evident in our politics too with all parties calling for youth to be involved in politics yet no one giving way to the young in the echelons of their party. Our ‘senior leaders’ (and even our youth leaders) will still cling on to their political chairs even at death’s door.
Our young graduates can be the driving force behind our country’s growth with new ideas, dynamism and a fresher perspectives on issues.Yet we cannot seem to make a convincing case for any of them to stay here which will eventually cost us dear. We might as well tell them that they’re better off going elsewhere to pursue their dreams. So if you are young, unemployed and reading this, just remember that all the costs associated with giving you an opportunity is more than we can bear. Instead, we’ll just sit here bemoaning the lack of ‘qualified’ graduates and the brain drain from our country. So when the last of you leave this country, please don’t forget to switch off the lights.
gunjan.u@gmail.com
