The government’s recent scrapping of the National Internship Scheme has sparked further controversy in the debate against hiring students for cheap labour.
Last month, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, argued that unpaid internships were promoting a crisis of social mobility. “We want a fair job market based on merit not networks. It should be about what you know, not who you know," said Clegg, as part of the social mobility strategy that was intended to be launched, contradicting the government’s latest move.
According to a recent report lead by Internocracy – a youth-led social enterprise aiming to lower the barriers and raise the bar in internships - found that 17% of UK businesses had taken on interns to use as a cheap source of labour.
At the same time, 84% of people who knew about internships didn’t realise that unpaid or expenses only internships could be illegal under employment law. Subsequently, the coalition’s reaction has somehow reversed from their earlier student support lead campaign.
The survey, which drew on opinions from 2,609 people, also found that only 9% of the ordinary public believed the experience of an internship "was payment enough".
"It's a real shame that young people don't know their employment rights," said Internocracy's chief executive, Becky Heath. "Conversely it is disappointing that businesses don't understand what interns are worth and the new talent, energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace."
Among the businesses and institutions that have been suspected of employing unpaid interns were the National Gallery, Natural History Museum, British Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The leading museums and art galleries were accused of exploiting interns earlier this year, making individuals work for no pay for up to nine months at a time.
Photographer and multi-media artist Agata Lulkowska, 31, worked unpaid as an intern at the National Gallery from November 2009 to January 2010. Despite enjoying her three-day-a-week post in the new media department, Miss Lulkowska had to turn down the offer of another two weeks as an intern because “I simply had no money left. I had used up my savings and maxed out my credit cards," she said.
Graduate Fog, a graduate careers advice website created by Tanya de Grunwald, journalist and author of ‘Dude, Where's my Career?’ states that The National Trust had also recently advertised for an unpaid intern to be their ‘Internship Programme Coordinator’. The job entailed to help set up the organisation’s new internship programme, which would encourage more interns to come and work for the organisation unpaid.
Grunwald goes further by sending an email to the organisation stating her concerns about the employment, labelling unpaid internships as “ethically dubious.” Mike Collins, Senior Press Office for The National Trust has said that the internships were ways in which the organisation could “help people get a foothold in to a career path of their choice,” as a means of “solid work experience.” Grunwald has also been discussing similar issues of unpaid internships with charitable organisation, Comic Relief.
The issue has raised a number of complaints from former unpaid interns about The National Trust’s internship scheme, with some claiming that it was “insulting.”
Sources:
- Stratton, Allegra "Nick Clegg's social mobility scheme targets unpaid internships" The Guardian, April 5, 2011
- Woodhouse, Craig "Nine-month unpaid internships at museums are exploitation, say MPs" London Evening Standard, February 23, 2011
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