Fashion Graduate Internships: The Runway to Useful Experience - Literature review Example

FASHION GRADUATE INTERNSHIPS: THE RUNWAY TO USEFUL EXPERIENCE by Student’s Name Code + Name of Course Institution City/State Professor Date Fashion Graduate Internships: The Runway to Useful Experience An internship programs denotes the practical experiences that graduates are offered by companies to enhance the skills they obtained while learning. This area of practical application for college students has been an area of interest for many scholars. Questions have been raised as to the importance of these practical experiences, especially for students seeking to be fashion professionals as well as the kind of supervision the students are given to enable them enhance their career. According to Marist (2012), an internship phase is always viewed as a time when an intern’s professional skills are refined; hence enabling him or her to deal with real professional challenges and tasks with more ease. With reference to Marist’s view, an internship can essentially be considered as a runway to useful experience for the interns. Contemporarily, experience in relation to one’s professionalism is considered to be vital. This is because of the talent floods in the market which basically makes it challenging for the new graduates to enter the market and initiate their careers (Lehnert 1999). In this regard, one cannot fail to acknowledge that work experience is a major requirement in various job advertisements. Paradoxically, a university graduate who has just cleared college is supposed to have some sort of experience in order for him or her to secure a job position. But then, where does one obtain the experience if organizations are unwilling to accept the graduates without the required experience? Internships thus, provide them with an option of getting this much needed experience (Breward 2003). The literature review will focus on fashion graduate internships, being a runway to useful experience by centring attention on the different styles of supervision that the interns are given in different fashion companies both within and without the Australian market. Most companies operate internship programs that offer graduates with the work experience they need. Essentially, the intern programs in most organizations have proven to be effective and can thus be termed as the runway to useful experience. For instance, according to Greenhouse (2012), companies that offer internship for fashion graduates appear to be implementing the program effectively. Emily Miethner presents a practical example of how effective this intern program is. She was able to get employment following her completion of an internship program at Gawker and is currently able to earn a lucrative amount of salary. According to her testimonial, Emily was able to advance her work experience because of the relevant work exposure she obtained from her supervisor. Apparently, she was mostly engaged in the activities of the different departments within the fashion industry which, essentially contributed to the betterment of her skills and knowledge in fashion. Essentially, internships are a runway to useful experience as they provide one with the relevant skills and know-how of the job market. With regard to Emily’s case, interns gain much from their internship in terms of work ethics and experience. Additionally, the internship programs offer numerous opportunities for the intern, as they are involved in the fashion market, and thus, are able to reach out to the available opportunities presented to them (Faerm 2011). In Australia, numerous fashion companies offer internships that are normally unpaid. This basic assumption of offering interns the opportunity to experience the fashion industry and hence, enhance their skills seems to be a major contributing factor to the culture of unpaid internships. Compared to the Australian fashion industry, most global fashion companies consider their interns as part of their workforce and hence, provide them with a minimum wage to enable them cater for their needs. There are however, many more other companies that have considerably perfected this culture of not paying the interns for the work they do at the company. For example, according to Fenella Souter (2012), the Sydney Symphony Orchestra company presents a good example among other companies that offer unpaid internships. Like other fashion industries, the Australian fashion companies usually initiate their interns in a systematic manner. This is mostly achieved through the issue of low pressured assignments which later develop to duties that are considerably regarded as having a lot of pressure. For instance, most interns are usually assigned to the designing and embroidery departments during their initial stages of internship within the company. As they continue with the company, the interns are then incorporated in other assignments that like planning a fashion show which majorly gives them the real experience of the market and the pressures involved (Mclay & Skelton, 2007, p2). Consequently, whereas some fashion companies offer close supervision for their interns, some companies provide no form of supervision. Essentially, supervision provides the interns with an opportunity to learn from other people who have been in the market for long. According to Greenhouse (2012), the Gawker Company among a few other fashion companies in the global market provide supervisory programs for their interns. This enables the interns to learn more about their field of professionalism as is the case of Emily Miethner. Emily posits to have considerably benefited from her internship at the Gawker Company. She acknowledges that the supervision she was given enabled her to experience and gain more knowledge about fashion, thus, making it possible for her to get a well paying job eventually. However, with other fashion companies, supervision of the interns is considered to be less important. While some companies apparently leave the interns to find their way through the company, some assign other interns to be in charge of the newer interns. This form of supervision ostensibly seems to be ineffective as it does not provide the new graduates with the proper environment for learning. Reportedly, most interns who have interned at the fashion industry claim that, most companies use the interns to perform irrelevant tasks in relation to their professionalism. Elliot (2010) as well as Greenhouse (2012) deem such practices as exploitative and essentially advocate for proper supervision for the graduates who apparently are still new to the fashion industry. The Global Experience Internship program is one of the major internship plans that provide the graduates with an all inclusive experience. Global Experiences seek interns from across Europe as well as Australia and offers them work experiences that expose them to the global fashion market (Fashion United 2013). To effectively enhance the skills of interns, it is essential for them to experience all aspects of the fashion industry; the Global Experience ostensibly ensures this through the exposure they give to the interns. The interns gain experiences in various fields of fashion like designing, marketing as well fashion photography. This is evidence of the benefits that the internship programs offer the graduates prior to their job appointments in the fashion industry. Having a global experience as is provided by the Global Experience enables the interns involved to learn new things that will contribute majorly to their career as fashion professionals. This is because, besides learning the fashion that is focused on their region and nation of origin, this Global Experience seemingly provides the interns with an opportunity to learn fashion as it is in other parts of the globe (Global Experience 2013). Overly, internship for the fashion graduates signifies a major opportunity for creating networks in the fashion industry (Reid 2013). As posited by Marist (2012), an internship phase is always viewed as a time when an intern’s professional skills are refined, this assertion supports that, an internship is an opportunity for a graduate to augment their career and professionalism in fashion. Internships mainly present an intern with the exposure they require and desire for building their careers and professions in fashion. By engaging in the practical aspect of the fashion industry, one obtains an opportunity to interact with other personalities who have succeeded in the industry. This allows the interns to create their own networks, which will eventually enable them to get employment and hence, boost the development of their career in fashion (Knouse & Fontenot 2008). On the other hand, despite the obvious benefits of the internship program to the graduates, a number of interns have reportedly had negative experiences with regard to their internship. There are cases where some interns claim that they do not get the experience they perceived they would which would help them with their career advancements. For instance, According to Greenhouse (2012), Glatt was forced to sue the company he was interning in because of lack of appropriate pay in relation to the amount of work done. Scholars like Greenhouse (2012) and Elliot (2010) acknowledge that, there are other fashion companies that considerably take advantage of the interns. This is mostly achieved using the internship program as a means of getting a free workforce. Whereas most of the graduate interns seek opportunities to learn and experience new things in the fashion industry, these companies take advantage of their labour and use them for their own benefits. A number of interns report that they have been required to perform duties that are not in line with their career or professional development while others claim to have been overworked with no pay. As much as the interns are not officially recognized as salaried employees within the company, they are to be treated as such for as long as they are working within the same company (Vault 2005). These cases of exploitation have in the recent past been addressed and the proper action has been taken against the companies which exploit the interns (Greenhouse 2012; Elliot 2010). Reference List Breward, C 2003, Fashion, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Cohen,S 2013, Steve Cohen: Minimum Wage for Interns? It Misses the Point, The Wall Street Journal, Available at [Accessed 29 April 2013] Eliot, G 2010 Fashion Industry Internships: Exploitation or Experience? The Guardian, Available at: [Accessed 29 April 2013] Fashion United, 2013 Internships in fashion, Available at; http://www.fashionunited.co.uk/fashion-news/design/internships-in-fashion-2010111510122 [Accessed 29 April 2013] Faerm, S 2011, Creating a Successful Fashion Collection: Everything You Need to Develop a Great Line and Portfolio, Barron's Educational Series. Gerken, M, Rienties, B, Giesbers, B & Konings, K 2012, Chapter 2 Enhancing the Academic Internship Learning Experience for Business Education—A Critical Review and Future Directions, pp. 7- 24 Global Experience 2013, Fashion Internships Abroad, Available at: http://www.globalexperiences.com/internships/fashion_internships.php [Accessed 29 April 2013] Greenhouse, S 2012, Jobs Few, Grads Flock to Unpaid Internships, The New York Times Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/business/unpaid-internships-dont-always deliver.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0> [Accessed 29 April 2013] Knouse, S & Fontenot, G 2008, Benefits Of The Business College Internship: A Research Review, Journal of employment counseling ,vol. 45, no.1, pp. 61- 66 Lehnert, G 1999, Fashion, London, Laurence King. Marist 2013, Internship Testimonials, Marist, Available at; [Accessed 29 April 2013] Mcay, A & Skelton, D 2007, Are we on the move? Projects versus internships, Retrieved from < http://www.apjce.org/files/APJCE_08_2_163_167.pdf> [Accessed 30 April 2013] Reid, J 2013, Fashion graduate Tim Watson wins internship in New York, Retrieved from < http://blogs.curtin.edu.au/humanities/2013/02/04/fashion-graduate-tim-watson-wins-internship-in-new-york/> [Accessed 30 April 2013] Souter, F 2012, All work, no pay: are internships a rip off? Retrieved from < http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/397562/all-work-no-pay-are-internships-a-rip-off/> [Accessed 30 April 2013] Vault (Firm) 2005, The Vault college career bible, Princeton, N.J, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Read More