Student internships
Quick answer
Student internships should be structured placements with a written agreement and a named supervisor. In the Philippines, unpaid internships must meet Article 306 conditions, including at least 20 hours a week and no more than 8 hours a day.
Where placements come from, the rules that govern them, and how to tell a structured placement from a scheme that sells you access to one. For internships abroad, see overseas internships.
Where they actually come from
- Your school’s placement office. The most reliable route, and usually the only one your institution endorses. It also knows whether a specific employer’s arrangement complies with the rules below.
- Employers recruiting directly. Worth doing even if you use the placement office, because agencies advertise openings that employers never offered.
- Agencies and paid platforms. These vary enormously, and the variance is the whole problem. See the checks below.
The rules on unpaid work, which most students do not know
Unpaid internships are less of a grey area than students assume, but the law depends on where you are. Three regimes pull in different directions.
The Philippines. Article 306 of the Labor Code, as amended, sets conditions for unpaid trainees and interns, and the principal ones are:
- The intern works at least twenty hours a week.
- The intern works no more than eight hours a day.
- There is a written agreement between the school, the student and the employer.
- The intern does not cover a regular employee’s duties during ordinary working hours, and there are restrictions on working a seventh consecutive day.
These conditions are what make an unpaid arrangement lawful there. Work with none of them in place is not a permissible internship, whatever the offer letter calls it.
The United States. The test is the “primary beneficiary” standard applied by the Department of Labor: an unpaid internship is lawful only where the intern, rather than the employer, is the main beneficiary – the work is tied to their education, they do not displace paid staff, and the employer gains no immediate advantage from their presence.
The United Kingdom. The dividing line is worker status rather than the word “intern”: someone doing regular work under an employer’s direction is generally entitled to at least the national minimum wage, whatever the contract is called.
Everywhere. One rule survives all three: if the work you do is work a paid employee would otherwise do, and you are not paid, ask which law permits it and get the answer in writing.
The agreement should exist before you start; an employer who wants you to begin without one has told you something. Asking your placement office whether an arrangement meets the requirement is a normal question.
The bodies that decide
- The Department of Labor and Employment – the Labor Code conditions above come from here, and complaints about unpaid or exploitative arrangements go here.
- Your school’s placement or internship office – for whether a specific employer’s arrangement is one the school will support, which is the question that actually affects whether you can claim it later.
- CHED – for whether a programme’s internship requirement is legitimate in the first place.
- The employer themselves – for what the role actually involves. Ask for a written description.
How to check a placement offer
- Ask for a written description of what you will do, and who supervises you by name.
- Ask whether it is paid or unpaid. If unpaid, ask them to confirm the twenty-hour and written-agreement conditions apply.
- Ask your placement office whether they recognise the employer.
- Confirm there is a reference or assessment at the end. A “real” placement has learning objectives; a body arranging free desk space has a logo.
- Never send money. A fee paid to obtain an internship inverts who is paying whom.
Warning signs
- A fee for the placement, or for an “application”.
- A guarantee of placement, or testimonials that cannot be verified.
- An offer arriving before you have been asked any substantive question about your qualifications.
- No named supervisor, and no contactable person at the employer.
- Being asked to sign a document you have not been allowed to read.
- Full-time hours, indefinitely, for no pay – that is a job, and you can be employed in it.
If you are being exploited
Keep the offer letter, the agreement, and a note of the hours you actually worked. The Department of Labor and Employment handles complaints about conditions, and your school needs to know regardless: an unrecognised placement may not count towards your degree, which is better discovered early.
General information, not legal advice. The Labor Code conditions are quoted as they stand; your placement office can confirm how they apply to your programme.
Where employers post: not open yet
There is no board on this page, deliberately. A board where employers post openings is user-generated content, and running one properly needs four things:
- A moderation process. Someone has to read each posting before it appears. That is a job, not a setting.
- A takedown route. A way to report a listing and have it pulled, with a record that it was.
- A record of who posted what. Without it the site cannot answer a complaint about a listing it no longer holds.
- Terms covering third-party content, including what happens when an employer posts something unlawful. Those terms have to exist before the first posting, not after the first complaint.
None of that is difficult, and all of it is easy to skip.
If you are looking for an internship now, the routes above are the ones that work, and none of them charges you.
Tools for the application
All pages in this section
- Finding an internship: where placements actually come from — Where placements actually come from, what an employer owes you, and the difference between applying and being sold something.
- Unpaid internships: what the law allows where you are — Whether an unpaid placement is lawful where it happens, who decides that question, and what to ask before accepting one.
- Internship applications and interviews: what gets read — What a strong application contains, and the questions an interview asks without asking them.
Common questions
Where do student internships come from?
School placement offices are usually the most reliable route. Employer career pages are worth checking directly, because agencies sometimes advertise openings that employers never offered. Paid platforms vary enormously.
What are the rules for unpaid internships?
Article 306 of the Labor Code sets the conditions, including a written agreement, at least twenty hours a week, no more than eight hours a day, and restrictions on covering a regular employee's duties or working a seventh consecutive day.
How can I tell a structured placement from a scheme?
A structured placement has a written description, a named supervisor, a schedule, and usually an assessment. Be wary of guarantees, applicant fees, and testimonials you cannot verify.