Internships, Employability and the Search for Decent Work Experience

This groundbreaking book examines the growing phenomenon of internships, and the policy issues that they raise, during a time when internships or traineeships have become an important way of transitioning from education into paid work.

Featuring contributions from established and emerging scholars in a range of disciplines, the book presents important new research on the use, benefits and regulation of such arrangements. It considers how various countries around the world are meeting the challenge of ensuring decent work for interns, and what more needs to be done to realise that objective. Additionally, the case for new forms of regulation to minimise or prevent the exploitation of interns is explored, against the background of a possible new international labour standard.

Presenting new data and analysis on whether internships can - and to what extent do - provide an effective bridge from education to employment, Internships, Employability and the Search for Decent Work Experience will be a key resource for policy-makers and academics in labour law, industrial relations, labour economics, human resource management and education.

Edited by Andrew Stewart, John Bray Professor Law, University of Adelaide, Rosemary Owens, Emerita Professor, Law School, University of Adelaide, Australia, Niall O’Higgins, Senior Economist, International Labour Office, Switzerland and Anne Hewitt, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide, Australia