302 words by a whitespace count. This teaching example has an AI-estimated band, not an official examiner score. Read the commentary, then attempt the question yourself.
“Some say unpaid internships exploit young workers; others see them as a chance to gain experience. Discuss bot…”Model answer
302 wordsP1Unpaid internships have become a fixture of graduate recruitment in many industries, generating a debate that sits at the crossroads of labour rights, social mobility and practical education. Critics see them as a sophisticated form of exploitation; defenders argue they are a legitimate exchange of time for experience. The truth, characteristically, lies between these poles.
P2The exploitation argument is not without force. Asking a graduate to perform productive work without payment, writing copy, conducting research, assisting with client management, is to extract real economic value in exchange for credentials whose actual worth in a competitive labour market can be elusive. More troubling still is the equity dimension: the ability to work without wages is a privilege largely confined to those supported by wealthy parents, effectively closing creative, legal, media and policy careers to talented individuals from modest backgrounds. What presents itself as meritocracy is therefore, in practice, a mechanism that reproduces inherited advantage.
P3On the other hand, dismissing internships wholesale ignores the genuine learning that structured placements can provide. A student who spends three months inside a publishing house or an architectural practice acquires contextual knowledge, professional habits and networks that no university course replicates. For industries where practical exposure is itself a form of credential, some period of experience-for-opportunity exchange may be genuinely in the intern's long-term interest.
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P4The distinction that matters is between genuinely structured learning and unpaid labour that substitutes for a paid role. Duration is relevant, but so are supervision, access and the nature of the work; a length alone cannot settle whether a placement is fair.
P5In conclusion, while the experience gained through internships can be genuinely valuable, prolonged unpaid work is indefensible. Safeguards requiring genuine learning and fair access, and remuneration for work that should be a paid role, would protect educational value while addressing exploitation.