Can an internship be unpaid?

It depends entirely on the legal system and on what the intern actually does. Several systems treat someone doing real work as a worker entitled to a minimum wage, whatever the placement is called.

Who owns what an intern makes?

It follows the same logic as any other contributor: if it is not written down, the answer depends on local law and on the relationship. Papers of this kind usually settle it in one clause.

Is an internship agreement an employment contract?

Sometimes it is one in substance. Where the arrangement looks like a job, many systems treat it as one regardless of the heading, which is why the status section is written carefully.

Employment and people

Internship agreement

The paper for a short placement inside a business, usually attached to study or to early career. It records the dates, the hours, what the person will actually do, who supervises them, what they are paid, and — the part most often left out — who owns anything they make. Whether an internship may be unpaid at all is decided by local employment law, and it is one of the areas where the answer differs sharply between countries.

In the catalogue: Employment and people
Where it can live: Any of the 184 governing laws

Who uses one

Companies taking on students or early-career people for a defined period.
Universities and colleges arranging placements for their students.
An intern who wants the terms of the placement written down.

What you are deciding

The dates, the hours and the days
What the intern will do, and who supervises them
What is paid, and any expenses covered
Whether it is an employment relationship under local law
Who owns work produced during the placement
What confidentiality applies
Whether a reference or a certificate is given at the end

Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.

The sections a draft usually has

1The parties
2Dates and hours
3The placement and supervision
4Pay and expenses
5Status
6Confidentiality
7Ownership of work
8Ending the placement
9Governing law

A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.

What people call it

The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.

internship agreement
intern contract
work placement agreement
trainee agreement
apprenticeship agreement
student placement contract

Questions people ask

Can an internship be unpaid?: It depends entirely on the legal system and on what the intern actually does. Several systems treat someone doing real work as a worker entitled to a minimum wage, whatever the placement is called.
Who owns what an intern makes?: It follows the same logic as any other contributor: if it is not written down, the answer depends on local law and on the relationship. Papers of this kind usually settle it in one clause.
Is an internship agreement an employment contract?: Sometimes it is one in substance. Where the arrangement looks like a job, many systems treat it as one regardless of the heading, which is why the status section is written carefully.

General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.

Where it lives

A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.

You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.

Start it at the door →

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