IGNITE launched Time is Money, a marketing campaign that informs students about their labour rights and gives students a voice to publicize unpaid labour experiences within internship placements
Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is Humber's internship program which places students in real-world work environments with an educational approach to teach students about how their program operates in the field.
Depending on the program, Humber and the University of Guelph-Humber students need to complete a WIL to graduate, sometimes requiring hundreds of hours of labour.
Isabella Vergara Bedoya, student advocate for IGNITE, said they’re listening to feedback from students about their placement experiences to determine the next steps forward.
“As we compile the stories people share on the website, we’re gonna assess that and say ‘Okay, we see there is X percentage of students who are actually okay with doing unpaid internships,’” Vergara said.
Students can share their stories on IGNITE's Time is Money Website. Vergara said the stories will be reviewed and the information will be brought up to Humber’s administration when discussions progress.
“It’s an ongoing conversation, right now we’re just advocating for the students but what happens next will be determined by the institution itself,” she said.
According to data posted by IGNITE, 20 per cent of UGH students were compensated for their WIL in the 2023-2024 academic year.
Among Humber students, the report said 24 per cent of WILs receive mandatory compensation.
Malcolm Lea, a third-year media and communications student at UGH, must complete a minimum of 240 WIL hours to graduate from his program next year.
Following an arduous search for a paid position, Lea had to take what he could get and will be working unpaid to complete his internship.
“The vast majority of internships that are out there are unpaid and I think the expectation is you’re working for experience to add to your resume,” Lea said. “But the cost of living the way it is, I personally just don’t think it’s the best approach considering that a lot of companies will get the value from labour you put in, it’s value added to the company.”
Lea pays for tuition on top of his rent and other living expenses such as groceries. He said devoting energy to an unpaid internship isn’t as motivating as a position that pays for his livelihood.
“It makes it makes it a lot harder for me to feel as committed to a role or be able to jump both feet in because I'm always on the lookout for something else to try and pay my bills,” he said.
Lea said the application process itself wasn’t much help either.
“The vast majority of listings will only contact you if ‘you’re the right fit for our position’, and I find that throwing so much out into seemingly the void makes it really difficult to get my bearings as a student,” Lea said.
“Typically I’m investing a lot of time into applying for a business, in my opinion, they should be getting back to me investing that same amount of time,” he said, “I feel it’s kind of disparaging, especially for new students.”
Milos Vasic, president of Humber Faculty Union OPSEU Local 562, said he’s in full support of the movement and is interested in working with IGNITE to help students.
“This is a great campaign, love it,” Vasic said.
Vasic said under no circumstances should a student go unpaid for their labour.
“Having unpaid internships creates an underclass of careless labour,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever justified.”
Vasic said the status of a paid position also surpasses the monetary compensation for student labour.
“New partners that don’t necessarily understand what happens in a work placement scenario, they might ask students to do stuff way outside their purview,” he said.
A partner is an organization that a student completes their WIL with.
“I’m assuming the ones that actually pay students for their time are the ones that are actually much better managed,” Vasic said.
WIL is integrated into a course which is part of the standard tuition fees for programs that require an internship to graduate.
Vasic said it’s not likely that Humber would ease off on the fees to support students.
“It is a novel idea, but I suspect if you ask Ann Marie Vaughan, she won’t want to give up a single penny of tuition revenue,” Vasic said.
Vasic said for students to get paid for their labour, the most effective way would be to organize some sort of larger-scale movement.
“What needs to happen is some sort of mobilization,” he said. “If only one student reaches out, they could risk feeling there could be retaliation.
“If the entire cohort stands together and says ‘Hey, listen, we need more transparency we need more fairness when it comes to these WIL placements,’ that’s much more powerful and that’s when you’ll start to see change,” Vasic said.
