Filed under: Education | Tags: Education, Fees, Graduate employment, Graduate Jobs, Intern fees, Internship, Investment Banking, Job Market, Law, Media, Politics, PR, Recession, Unpaid work
In the media this week there has been a variety of stories suggesting that students are paying companies, which seem to be springing up all over the internet, for advice on gaining valuable internships. For some context, students usually are supposed to at some point in their degree (usually in the first and/or second year) find a three to six month unpaid internship in a sector that they wish to work in. However, finding an internship in Media, PR, Law and Investment Banking as just some widely recognised examples is nothing short of extremely hard; without wishing to blame the recession, there has also been suggestions that this has led to firms being more selective and considering students only from the top universities.
While many students are routinely rejected for internships in the summer of both years 1 and 2 of their degree, they tend to worry about the feasibility of working in their preferred industry, which is where we’ve seen companies offer CV advice alongside tailor made help for specific internship programmes (such as help with tests and interviews). It has come to be expected that to work in some industries graduates will have to work going unpaid or with extremely poor pay. For students who wish to work in journalism, the BBCs work experience programmes are highly competitive and while gaining access to work on local papers can be more easily sought almost always these go unpaid and even if the student was lucky enough to gain a job on a local paper as a reporter they’d expect no more than around £12,000 starting pay (hardly a graduate salary). While some other careers promise higher salaries such as those obtained in Public Relations being closer to £20,000 – this is an industry where like journalism, graduates are expected to work for free for a period of time. Now many might argue that if graduates expect to fly up the career ladder in an industry they’ve always wished of working in, they should expect to undertake 6months to a years worth of unpaid work to get their foot in the door so to speak. While this may be true how can graduates from less wealthy backgrounds be expected to afford living for up to a year with no income (bearing in mind most graduate jobs are located in London).
Unpaid graduate internships and even starting salaries for journalism jobs, I would argue lead to less more than qualified yet not quite middle-class enough graduates turning away from these industries, is it any wonder people bleat on all the time about the lack of working class people in newspapers or high paid jobs? It is arguable that we are getting to the point where unpaid internships are leading to the privileged getting necessary experience yet graduates who are equally as qualified turning to lesser jobs merely so they can live comfortably or support their families. I think the government should make it compulsory for graduates to be paid the minimum wage during internships, while this may not solve the problem, it will help considerably – many of those who turned down unpaid work with a prospect of their dream job because they couldn’t afford to live in London for a year going unpaid may now give it a go. Surely the skills of a graduate merit minimum wage pay? Companies which offer unpaid internships on the whole tend to be massive organisations that make staggering profits, while it might be acceptable to expect a first or second year student to undertake a few months work with no pay but essential experience gained it shouldn’t be expected for those who are done studying.
It would be terrible if we got to the point where companies have realised they can take a batch of highly qualified graduates, make them work for a year (yes, proper work – 9-5) then instead of taking on all of those that are good enough, they instead replace many with other highly qualified graduates who will also work for a year for free.
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This is something that I also feel very strongly about. In the past three years I have done my fare share of work experience for free, and if I was lucky I had my transportation payed for. I am fortunate in that I live just 30 minutes from London, however the cost of commuting every day is too expensive even though I live so close.
I find it very difficult to motivate myself to apply for many internships or types of work experience due to the money it will cost me to do it. I am already massively in debt from my degree and the thought of having to get in even more debt to gain more qualifications and more work experience to even put a foot in the door is simply draining.
I think we have come to a point where even the time and money we spend on degrees and work experience doesn’t secure us a job in the future. I agree that the government should make it so that all graduates are payed the minimum wage during internships, that way we can at least try and motivate ourselves to keep trying.
Comment by rohannaphillips December 2, 2009 @ 10:17 amI’m with both of you on this one. I have been lucky enough that when I have done placements in London, I’ve had free accomodation from a friend who lives in central London. However if I was to take this out of the equasion, I would have to think twice about taking placements on financial grounds. London is were all the experience is, but it is also the most expensive places to be in the country.
I have never done a placement of more than a week, so have never really had much financial implication, but I would find it hard to even contemplate doing a six month placement for free.
I don’t think that week placements should be paid for – perhpas travel expenses and a luch allowance if you’re lucky – as I honestly think the opportunities would become even few and far between if companies had to pay work ex students. But, long term placements are a completely different story. I think companies see it as a way of capitalising on someone’s desire to enter the industry as a way of gaining free labour.
Comment by ashpercival December 2, 2009 @ 12:48 pm