Yes, this could mean cleaning toilets or getting coffee. The timing of an internship can take one of two interesting paths. Sufficient academic progress should be completed to assure that basic education is firm. When undertaken before the last semester of formal education, the internship allows for a final fine tuning, a chance to take one more course that makes one a more desirable entry-level employee. When undertaken after completion of school, a student is available for immediate employment.
Many good internships lead directly to jobs.
Considering the cost of subsistence during this period, internships are predictably discriminatory. Only those who can afford to work for free are available. This is one of the costs of education which the industry and the student must accept. Every effort must be made to assure, in all ways, internship placements are in no way discriminatory. All participants in the process want to be assured that the industry is seeing the very best of its young talent.