Internships are important to get work experience. I mean, the company or institution is doing you a favour. A fully qualified, full time employee is dedicating a certain amount of time and effort to an intern. That is time and effort which could have been spent on their own work and meeting business needs. I know Parliamentary internships are notorious for being unpaid. At the end of the day, interns are only there was a limited amount of time. Its also there for the intern, a young student, to discover whether or not going into that industry is the right career path for them. Big companies like Unilever offer internship which is aimed at penultimate year university students, those who can work during the summer, on the assumption that they can fully support themselves. Paid or unpaid internships...it really depends on whether the applicant really wants it and can apply in good time.