The wage gap starts at the internship

“I was just getting up to go to work for the sake of getting my degree. I did not have that internal drive to actually gain anything from the experience.”

For many Namibian university students, the internship is a rite of passage a bridge between the classroom and the professional world. But what happens when that bridge costs you more than it gives? Mbitjita Tjijaundja, a fourth-year student, sat down to share her experience with unpaid placement, the quiet erosion of motivation it caused, and why she believes the system needs to change.

COMPENSATION

Asked whether she felt fairly compensated during her internship, Mbitjita’s answer was blunt: she wasn’t compensated at all. “I did an unpaid internship, so no, I did not feel compensated for my work at all,” she said. It is a reality shared by countless students across the country trading their time, energy, and intellectual effort for the promise of experience alone.

MOTIVATION & PERFORMANCE

The psychological toll of working without pay, she explains, runs deeper than empty pockets. Financial compensation or the absence of it directly shapes how invested a student feels in the work they are doing. “It got to a point where I was just getting up to go to work for the sake of getting my degree. I did not have that internal drive to actually gain anything from the experience.”Mbitjita Tjijaundja. She is careful to clarify that this is not an argument that unpaid students learn nothing. “I’m not saying that students won’t gain any practical knowledge,” she notes, “but it definitely hinders active participation from students.” The distinction matters: passive presence is not the same as genuine engagement, and one often substitutes for the other when motivation is stripped away.

EXPLOITATION OR OPPORTUNITY?

Perhaps the most striking part of Mbitjita’s account is what she was actually asked to do on the job. Rather than being integrated meaningfully into the organisation’s work, she found herself filling a very different role. “I was given tasks that none of the company employees wanted to do and the days became repetitive. I was doing the same thing every day, and I wasn’t learning anything new.” It is a pattern that raises serious questions about how some organisations view student workers not as emerging professionals deserving of mentorship, but as a rotating pool of labour that requires no salary and carries no long-term obligation