Jenny Chan is principal investigator of a Research Grants Council’s Early Career Scheme Project (RGC ECS Project No. 25602517) on “Internships, Informal Labor and Vocational Skills Training in China,” which builds on previous research funded by a John Fell Oxford University Press (OUP) Research Fund. While it focuses on China's working youth, internships are now widespread and the subject of controversy throughout the world. This research centers on the state-capital-school relationship in framing student internships in China’s development. Interestingly, some employers are climbing value chains by upskilling their employees through methods including the recruitment of student interns. But others collaborate with local governments and school administrations to exploit legal loopholes incentivized by the convenience of obtaining interns under short-term employment and by the low cost of young students’ labor, including non-contribution of social security. The informalization of labor, particularly the place of student interns, deserve detailed analysis. In the context of slowing growth and an ageing population, proper training of vocational students is significant to sustainable development in China and far beyond.