The government announced this month that it would fund an intern program in the 2016-17 budget, paying businesses $1000 to take on a young worker for up to 25 hours a week.

The worker in turn would receive an extra $100 a week from the government on top of their Centrelink payments.

University of Tasmania sociology research fellow Brendan Churchill this year published an extensive report that tracked youth unemployment over 20 years with university colleague Lisa Denny.

He said the labour market’s current conditions had given rise to unpaid work through internships as young people were desperate to find work.

“From the perspective of government, internships may look like a natural solution to addressing the issues young people have in making school-to-work transitions, making young people more 'job-ready', but perhaps misses the bigger issues related to education and training.” Mr Churchill said.

“It's possible that internship schemes may adversely affect apprenticeships.

“Apprenticeships are highly regulated whereas the internship schemes are less so.

“Businesses might prefer to hire interns because it's more effective and cheaper to do so without the associated burdens to hiring an apprentice.

“They can also cycle through them quicker.”

Master Builders Association of Tasmania executive director Michael Kerschbaum said the organisation supported the plan.

Mr Kerschbaum said the plan might help trade shortages and give young people a taste of the industry before locking themselves into an apprenticeship.

“All of these employment packages are fraught with some danger but this program at least provides the benefit of onsite training rather than training in a simulated environment,” he said.

Invermay jobseeker Jesse Barwick, 19, said he would be like to participate in the program to get a foot in the door while receiving boosted Centrelink payments.

He described it as being similar to the Work for the Dole program but with better financial incentives.

“That extra $200 a fortnight would be helpful to me as I’m struggling enough on Centrelink payments as it is,” he said.

But fellow 23-year-old Launceston jobseeker, Tara Purcell, said the plan would see people effectively working for $4 a hour and could impact casual jobs.

“A company can look at an intern and know they can do the same as a casual without having to pay the intern.”