Are Internships in South Africa Paid or Unpaid ?
Internships can be paid or unpaid — though, if they are unpaid, they’re usually subject to stringent labor guidelines. In SA, federal law mandates that unpaid interns must not benefit the company economically or be used to displace the work done by paid employees.
Most South African internships are work experience internships — essentially on-the-job training in a field that the student or young worker wants to learn more about. But there are also research internships, more common in scientific fields, in which a higher-level student examines a particular topic on behalf of a business before producing a written study or presentation.
Though employment isn’t guaranteed at the end of an internship, many employers use internships as a way to train and evaluate future employees. In fact, a 2009 survey of U.S. employers with interns found that 67% of those interns were given job offers after their terms were complete.