The practicum or internship is an essential part of a student’s schooling, gaining practical experience in order to go out into your chosen field.

For many students alike, this translates into working grueling hours and doing the jobs that no one else wants to do. While this may seem stereotypical it begs the question of whether there is some truth in the statement.

An article I found from the Huffington Post and it definitely is shedding light on the darker side of the practicum. 22-year-old Albertan and student Andy Ferguson was on his way home after a grueling 16-hour day at his practicum. Ferguson, who often texted friends and family about feeling mistreated as the intern however, never made it home that night due to a tragic collision. Ferguson’s family is convinced the cause of the collision was due to exhaustion and falling asleep at the wheel. While no one can say for sure the cause of Ferguson’s accident, it is open to investigation.

The Ferguson family believes that Andy Ferguson was mistreated and is pushing for change in Labour rules. In the article the Canadian Intern Association says it hears many stories from young people feeling overworked. Ferguson’s case unfortunately is one of many tragic stories.

As a student myself who will be completing a practicum at the end of the year, I find this quite scary. While I know that my school has my best interests at heart, you can’t help but feel a bit taken a back. Reading the article I find it believable that Ferguson very well could have been taken advantage of and it sounds like he was degraded to some point. The records show that Ferguson had no alcohol or drugs in his system and was not on his phone when he crashed. The highway was clear; it should have been a simple drive home. With this information in mind it seems all too possible that Ferguson had been driven to the brink of exhaustion.

The article does seem to be missing information from Astral Media, the place where Ferguson was an intern, but they also seemed to decline answering questions. To me this indicates that perhaps they are not being 100% transparent. Ferguson’s case seems to be something that shouldn’t have happened at all. I hope that as a province we are able to protect all unpaid workers, students and youth. I feel that there is a lot that could come out by exploring and looking into what can be done in the future.  

I think it also needs to be stressed that not all interns or practicums are bad. During the summer I worked as an intern and could not have asked for a better experience, but there is always room for improvement.