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Qahraman Ghanbari

The Supreme Employment Council, on 25 Bahman 1395, approved a plan called the Internship Plan, which the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare is obligated to implement until Tir 1396. During the elections, there was a lot of maneuvering and pretending about the effectiveness of this plan, making it seem as if it was designed to completely eradicate unemployment. In summary, in this plan, university graduates register on the central website and are introduced to employers and companies through the website. They work for a period of four to six months, which can sometimes be extended to eleven months, combining their theoretical knowledge with practical experience in the workplace. The salary for the worker starts at one-third of the minimum wage for diploma graduates and ends at ninety percent for PhD graduates. The employer is not obligated to hire the intern after the program ends, and in terms of insurance, the intern is only covered for accidents. Another point is that this plan does not include those who are

The first problem with the internship program is the lack of coordination between the program’s name and its branding and advertising. In other words, using the term “internship” for a program that has little to do with job creation is a misleading tactic used to temporarily alleviate unemployment and poverty. It is used as a temporary sedative for the restless minds of job seekers. But what is the real purpose of the internship program?

Saeed Mazandarani, the General Director of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare of Golestan Province, may have given the closest definition to the truth about this plan in the administrative council of Agh Ghala. Referring to the fact that the internship plan is a stimulus for employment, he said: “This plan should not be confused with employment generation plans. The government has considered plans and facilities in the field of employment, including the sustainable employment plan, the production boom package, and various banking facilities.” (2)

As mentioned, the definition mentioned is not complete and is biased. However, the truth is that the quality of education in Iran is very low and on top of that, there is a kind of educational elitism that essentially deprives the Iranian people of their human dignity and respect. Having a minimum level of respect is a fundamental condition for self-esteem and pride as a subjective human being. One of the ways that the Iranian people try to overcome this lack is by being called titles such as doctor, haji, professor, and engineer, which at least earns them some respect in society. Of course, this does not mean that the writer is against education; on the contrary, education is a necessary condition for development in every aspect and essentially, humans were not much different from animals in terms of intelligence before learning to read and write during the cave-dwelling era. However, a side issue in this matter is that studying by force and studying at any cost is only for the sake of having a

“I will not stray from the discussion; this obsession with degrees and the quality of universities and schools is undoubtedly a disaster for us ordinary people who are not dependent on politicians. Ordinary people do not benefit from these privileges and their tables are not adorned with the benefits of oil; nevertheless, they are plagued by the problem of degree obsession and everyone tries to obtain a degree at any cost, with great effort and expense. But in the end, besides social prestige and bragging rights, these ordinary people need to make a living and the degree they have obtained should guide them towards their desired profession. Here we are faced with the bitter truth that the quality of education in Iran is low and the job market is very limited. The internship program is designed to fill the gaps in education or improve the skills of the active learners, and by providing free labor to employers, the government wants to kill two birds with one stone: in the first stage, it wants to familiarize the intern, who may have had inadequate

In the first stage, this question is raised or this criticism is directed towards the government, asking why they are not focused on improving the quality of education in schools and universities to meet the needs of the job market. In response to improving the quality of education and combating the culture of credentialism, the reality is that there is no will to do so and the decision-making centers in the system are so complicated that despite the fact that officials themselves sometimes complain about this issue, changing the system and improving the quality of education is a very difficult task. The important point in the difficulty of this reform is that many teachers and educational officials, or even country officials, are products of this education system and most of them have obtained degrees that they do not have a strong foundation in. This defective production is the result of a defective cycle. The situation of credentialism is even worse, as now even the clergy, who used to be satisfied with their religious attire and rank, are also seeking university degrees to gain

But is the government legally and ethically allowed to present a skills training plan under the name of a job creation plan? In the first stage, the biggest ethical mistake of the government in this plan is playing with words and using slogans unrelated to the essence of the plan. This means that if the quality of education in schools, technical and vocational organizations, and universities is weak and insufficient, efforts should be made to solve this issue in collaboration with educational organizations and organizations with weak efficiency, or it should be addressed as a weakness and discussed in a general and specialized manner to solve it at its root. However, the government, with its incorrect naming of the plan, presents the skills training and free work plan as a program that is supposed to reduce unemployment or be a cure for chronic unemployment. This means that the government’s first mistake – which is deliberate – is coloring the sparrow and shaping it as a customer for the seven-colored nightingale. But if we overlook this linguistic mistake – which is

Does this plan have the potential for job creation? The answer to this question is complex. In the first stage, the government has not explicitly required employers to continue apprenticeships in the field in which they have studied. This means that someone who has studied architecture can learn skills in a carpentry workshop. In fact, the employer’s hand is somewhat open and generally people are willing to invest in order to secure permanent employment. This means that an apprentice may end up working in a field unrelated to their studies in order to avoid unemployment, and this flawed cycle of incomplete education may repeat itself. The second point is that the government has named this skill “apprenticeship” in which the apprentice, under the supervision of a training mentor, takes steps to improve their vocational skills. However, it is not clear who the mentor should be and what qualifications they should have, and most of the time the employer, supervisor, or ultimately the department engineer will have control over the apprentice until the end of their

At the opposite point – as mentioned before – the quality of education in our country is weak and an intern can complete their skills with one year of practical work in a work environment and hope to either stay in the workshop or find a permanent job elsewhere. For example, we always make things difficult for ourselves in the present so that we can have more comfort in the future; it is with this hope that someone studies hard, enduring the difficulties, with the belief that in the future they will be able to use their knowledge and live a more comfortable life. The second point of benefit of this program is providing free or cheap labor for the employer, which not only increases their profits by using free labor, but also turns an unskilled worker or employee into a skilled one within a year without having to pay for their training, and ultimately hires this skilled worker and fulfills their need for skilled labor. It is important to consider that it takes three months to a year for someone to fully utilize their skills

Another issue that is mentioned repeatedly in this regard is the issue of repeated repetitions, but we are still forced to repeat it. This is the development of the economy and the creation of employment, which is dependent on the expansion and promotion of democracy within the country and peaceful and friendly relations with regional and global countries. Essentially, what has been referred to as “resistance economy” for several years, which is supposed to increase economic growth and create employment, are meaningless terms that do not need to be proven in academic economics. Even an economic activist, whose work is related to trade, production, and services, can see in a passing glance at the principles of this “resistance economy” that it is filled with meaningless and irrelevant words to the economy, and its authors are not even aware of the management style of a bakery. For example, as mentioned, we are faced with words in this program that have no clear meaning, and the Office of the Supreme Leader has explained the meanings of these words

Sources:

1. Executive Procedure for Implementing the Internship Program for University Students, Approved by the High Council of Employment on 05/11/1395, Internship Website.

2. The internship program is a job stimulus, ISNA News Agency, 23 Khordad 1396.

3. The private life of Ahmadinejad according to his son-in-law, Shargh newspaper, issue 2826, February 24, 2017.

4. Introducing Ayatollah Mohammad Khamenei, the brother of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the website of the Molla Sadra Foundation, which is managed by himself.

5. Explanation of how unemployment statistics are calculated: In Iran, unemployment statistics have been calculated in a way that if a person works even one hour per week, they are considered part of the employed population and are not included in the final unemployment statistics. Additionally, housewives, soldiers, and students are also counted as part of the employed population. This means that if we do not count seasonal workers, street vendors, and other temporary jobs, as well as housewives, as part of the employed population – which they are not – the unemployment rate in Iran is higher than forty percent. You can read the biased explanations of the head of the Statistical Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the official website of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare in an article titled “Explanation of the Method of Calculating the Unemployment Rate by the Head of the Statistical Center” dated November 2, 2010.

6. Explanation of sentences and words with specific meanings related to the concept of “resistance economy” to prevent potential misuse of words’ meanings by the Office of Publication of the Leader’s Teachings: “The Culture of Resistance Economy in the Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution”, the official website of Ayatollah Khamenei, 18 February 2014.

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