There’s a growing buzz and growing worry about internships in Rwanda that pay little or nothing. For many graduates, internships are marketed as the necessary “bridge” from campus to career. For others, especially those from less privileged backgrounds, unpaid placements can become a trap: months of unpaid work that delay financial independence, force difficult trade-offs, and widen inequality.
Rwanda does have national structures that aim to make internships meaningful. The Ministry of Public Service and Labor runs a National Professional Internship Programme that places recent graduates in public and private institutions and provides a monthly stipend through the programme (which employers can top up). The programme and several operational guidelines are explicitly linked to the national Workplace Learning Policy meant to build employability skills.
Positive side: training, exposure and networks
When done correctly, internships can be powerful. A structured placement gives hands-on experience, workplace mentoring, and a chance to translate theory into tasks employers value. For interns who cannot afford unpaid work, a stipend-based national programme can open doors otherwise closed; targeted internships (e.g., in justice, health, or government) expose young people to networks and referees that accelerate job prospects. Studies and policy papers on workplace learning note improved labor market outcomes for participants when internships are well-supervised and tied to clear learning objectives.
Negative side: exclusion, exploitation and displacement
But there’s a darker side. Unpaid or poorly supervised internships disproportionately exclude candidates who must support families or pay rent. Employers that rely on free labor risk turning internships into permanent unpaid roles, eroding entry-level pay norms and taking jobs that could go to paid employees. Interns may perform routine tasks with little supervision, receiving no training or assessment, the opposite of what a legitimate workplace-learning experience should deliver. The International Labor Organization warns that internships should be primarily for training, should not displace regular workers, and should respect core employment protections standards often breached in practice.
What rights do interns have in Rwanda?
Rwanda’s legal framework distinguishes apprenticeship and internship contracts and sets out their nature in ministerial orders and national guidelines; these documents anchor internships in the workplace-learning policy and clarify roles for institutions, supervisors and the Ministry. That legal scaffolding provides a basis to demand defined learning objectives, supervision, and where national programmes apply a stipend. But enforcement and employer compliance vary, so knowledge of your rights and program rules is essential.
How to make internships meaningful (and fair)
Insist on a written placement plan: duties, supervisor, learning outcomes and duration.
Push for remuneration or stipends for living costs; where national schemes provide stipends, employers should not replace them with unpaid “attachments.”
Monitor and evaluate: institutions and universities must track intern progress and collect feedback.
Limit duration and prevent displacement: internships should not substitute paid roles; they should be time-bound training experiences.
Public-private collaboration: expand stipend national placements and incentivize private employers to offer paid internships through tax credits or recognition.
Conclusion
Unpaid internships are not inherently exploitative but without clear rules, supervision and financial support they risk deepening inequality and wasting young talent. Rwanda already has policy instruments and a national internship programme that, if scaled and enforced, can tilt the balance toward training and fair access. The challenge for policymakers, employers and universities is to convert that promise into day-to-day practice so internships become springboards not stumbling blocks for the country’s youth.
Brenna AKARABO
RADIOTV10
