ISO 29997: A Standard for Taking Interns Seriously

The precarious generation, the internship generation … Do you remember 2005? Interns were making their voices heard through blogs, flash mobs, and street protests. We have no rights, no status, no pay, and we’re disposable like Kleenex , I was told it was either that or no job at all ...   To circumvent labor laws, companies rely on interns—a skilled, disposable, virtually free, and highly motivated workforce , as was reported at the time.
Since then, some progress has been made. In particular, the law of March 31, 2006, made it mandatory to provide compensation for internships lasting more than three months. This threshold was lowered to two months at the end of 2009. This is not far from being a French exception. And it is precisely this lead that our country has taken that gave rise to a voluntary international standard in December 2025. Led by France, ISO 29997 is the first document in the world to provide a step-by-step method for properly welcoming an intern into a company, from drafting the internship offer to milestones to help the intern progress.
We spoke with three professionals who have been involved in the development of the standard from the very beginning: Sana Ronda, CEO of Linguaphone; Celica Thellier d'Auzers, co-founder of ChooseMyCompany; and Stéphanie Devèze, project director at the Occitanie Regional Education Authority, who has been passionate about helping young people enter the workforce for over twenty years. “In this document, we’ve aligned the needs of interns with those of companies,” she explains. “The standard is intended for companies. In my view, mid-sized companies are the core target audience, because they can commit to providing students with high-quality opportunities, even though they often think they’re not capable of doing so.” 

Interns: The Debate Over Compensation

The countries involved in drafting this standard easily agreed on the benefits provided by interns, who enable companies to identify the skills that will be essential in the future and to strengthen their managerial skills through mentors. Among the points of contention during international discussions was, of course, the issue of compensation. Apart from Romania and Bulgaria, which also already had systems in place (Romania, in particular, has laws that strongly protect interns), France did not find many allies when it came to compensating interns. But discussions at ISO helped move the ideas forward. “We reached an agreement on an incentive-based formulation,” summarizes Celica Thellier d’Auzers.
The co-founder of ChooseMyCompany continues, with conviction: Youth employment is a critical social issue. Welcoming an intern and helping them grow is a significant responsibility for a company, and it would be dangerous to take this matter lightly. Companies, along with their partners in higher education, hold the key to the economic development and professional lives of the next generation of employees, managers, leaders, artisans, and entrepreneurs! 

Social Responsibility

Sana Ronda, CEO of Linguaphone, confirms that “companies should view interns with even greater urgency than any other candidate.” She concludes: “A company is a place for social interaction, not just a workplace. It is within the company that we inspire young people to want to work. We all have a huge responsibility!”

Of course, this responsibility cannot rest solely with the company. A successful internship depends on a three-way relationship: the host organization, the educational institution, and the intern themselves. The company provides a clear framework, appropriate assignments, an accessible mentor, and regular feedback. The educational institution, for its part, provides career guidance, ensures the internship’s educational alignment with the curriculum, defines the skills to be developed, and actively monitors the internship’s progress. As for the intern—a young adult in the early stages of their professional development—they too must prepare, stay informed, articulate their expectations, demonstrate diligence, and speak up when the internship does not meet the established goals. “It is precisely this shared responsibility that allows us to move beyond a purely administrative view of the internship and turn it into a genuine professional learning experience,” emphasizes Sana Ronda.
The new standard is now looking for new advocates: HR directors who can test it, implement it within their companies, and help ensure it receives the widespread adoption it deserves.