Been thinking about this a lot lately. Currently in a 6 month 40 hour a week internship following my graduation from my masters program. This internship is the only place that would (and will still) have me, despite having and continuing to send out 100+ applications to entry level roles.
It seems as though internships have replaced the entry level role, but do not on their own provide the 1-3 years of experience asked for in many entry level jobs. In my personal example, I had multiple years of volunteer work and 2 internships during the course of my 2 year masters, but since they were part time, the experience seems to mean Jack to employers.
I'm not sure how such a ball would get rolling, but I feel as though some legal definitions and laws put in place (I'm US based for clarity) would go a long way towards putting the entry level job back at entry level. My thoughts off top of head are:
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By law an entry level job can have educational requirements, but no experience based requirements outside of classroom understanding.
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Internships are still allowed, but a company must employ interns at a rate of 2 entry level employees to 1 intern. This point is the avoid the entry level job vanishing entirely, were only point 1 implemented.
I'd love to hear the thoughts on you all if such a legislative idea is worth pursuing. Maybe if we collectively put our thoughts together, we in the US could send similar letters and or calls to our reps in various states.