When will there be paid internships in psychoeducation, social work, nursing and so many other predominantly female fields? After giving 920 hours of free work to the State during her internships, Naïmé Daoust-Zidane, who studies psychoeducation, asks the question and continues the fight with other young people.
Press conferences, letters to the media, actions at the National Assembly: under the leadership of the Quebec Student Union, various student associations are returning to action this fall and demanding once and for all that compulsory internships be paid.
Naïmé Daoust-Zidane notes that for the compulsory 360-hour baccalaureate internships, “the vast majority of students are directed to youth centers to reduce [les effets de] labor shortage.
This is what she did in 2020, working mainly in the evenings and on weekends, “times when shifts are difficult [pourvus] “.
At the master’s level, she continues, “we are fully autonomous. The 560 hours of internship that we then have to do are 95% of the hours during which we work independently.”
We do assessments and intervention plans. We are coming to relieve the system.
Naïmé Daoust-Zidane, student in psychoeducation
Can we think that the internships in question are unpaid because they are mainly carried out in the public system? “My sister, who studied industrial engineering, did her internship in the public sector, at the CHUM. She earned $22 an hour there,” replies Mme Daoust-Zidane.
“Psychoeducation is a program that greatly attracts women,” she continues. Several are mothers, several are returning to school. But whatever our situation, we have bills to pay. »
Before her internships, Naïmé Daoust-Zidane had a part-time job while studying. During the internship, this was not possible.
Fields with a strong female predominance
This is all behind her. His internships were done voluntarily. If she continues to be involved, she says, it is in particular because “it is an important cause for women”.
The National Assembly recognized this in March. The motion tabled by PQ MP Pascal Bérubé (99 votes for, no votes against, no abstentions) specifies, among other things, that the National Assembly takes note of student demands “denouncing the non-remuneration of several public sector internships”, that she “shares their observation that these unpaid internships mainly affect predominantly female professions” and that she “asks the government to recognize the employee status of student interns in the public sector”.
The Perspective Québec scholarship, created by the Legault government in 2021, offers $2,500 to students per session, “but it is far from enough to provide for the basic needs of a student at university,” argue in a letter has The Press Marie-Estelle Quennevile, founding member of the Committee for Internship Remuneration at the University of Montreal, as well as future psychoeducators Alexanne Poulin, Mélika Saïdane and Francis Poisson.
The scholarship barely “covers tuition fees.” What to do with the rent? Travel and grocery shopping. And that’s without taking into account the inflation that we are currently experiencing in Quebec,” we read in the letter.
Jacob Fontaine, vice-president of external affairs of the Student Federation of the University of Sherbrooke, maintains that “without remuneration, some people have to go into debt to do their internship. In a context of increasing costs of living, we will never resolve the labor shortage if people leave or delay their studies due to lack of financial means to complete their studies.”
Annabelle Berthiaume, assistant professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Sherbrooke, believes that “interns share with employees in education, health services and social services the lack of recognition for their work, a care work or caring, which has historically and socially been assigned to women. That’s the heart of the matter.”
“The demand for remuneration for internships is therefore a demand to recognize this caring work, in which thousands of interns in Quebec participate, which deserves to be remunerated,” insists M.me Berthiaume. A salary would allow these students, for the vast majority, greater financial autonomy in relation to their family, their spouse and even the banks, due to debt. »
Where is the government on this issue? Simon Savignac, press officer in the office of the Minister of Higher Education, responds that Minister Pascale Déry “is committed to paying certain full-time internships in the public sector. Different scenarios are currently being studied, we will do things in order.”
A horizon has not been specified.
What there is to know
Since 2016, education and health students have been fighting to have their compulsory study internships – which sometimes last several hundred hours – paid.
This mobilization led to the creation by Quebec of scholarships which remain largely insufficient in the eyes of the young people who are resuming the fight this fall, while the cost of living is exploding.
Backed by a motion from the National Assembly in their favor, the students are demanding real remuneration for these internships in fields with a clear female predominance.