Last week one of the Interns Anonymous team took part in a Guardian podcast debate on unpaid internships.
You can hear all the action at this link. Our discussion with Ben Rosen of Inspiring Interns starts about 15 minutes in. Enjoy!
Archive for the 'Debate' Category
Guardian Debate
Published 07/07/2010 Debate Leave a CommentTags: Guardian, guardian internships, internships debate, guardian inspiring interns
Various ways to have your say
Published 06/25/2010 Campaigns , Debate Leave a CommentTags: IPSA, Low Pay Commission
NUMBER 1: IPSA- Parliamentary Reform
IPSA have invited the public to comment on their ‘Amendments to the MPs’ Expenses Scheme Rules’. Have a look at this document, in particular these questions:
Q2. How should MPs be able to claim for the payment of travel and lunch expense to interns who are not ‘workers’ and do not have contracts of employment?
How may MPs operate safely within the exemptions provided from paying minimum pay rates within the legislation?
Email your answers to: schemeconsultation(at)parliamentarystandards.org.uk by the 7th July.
NUMBER 2: Low Pay Commission
Get in touch with us via email if you would like to talk to the Low Pay Commission about your experiences as an intern paid less than the minimum wage. You would need to be free from 3.30pm to 4.30pm on Wednesday 7th July and be able to travel to Tottenham Court Road in London.
OK there are many many other ways you can have your say but two is enough for today…
The murky Internship Alliance
Published 06/20/2010 Campaigns , Debate , Gossip 4 CommentsTags: inspiring interns, intern aware, internship alliance, internship campaign, luther pendron internships, tanya de grunwald internships, the internship alliance, uninspiring interns
You might be hearing a little more about something called the ‘Internship Alliance’ over coming weeks and months. They are a newly created pressure group of vested interests and public affairs companies who want to lead discussions with the government about the role internships play in the job market. We, and a few others, have some concerns.
They have styled themselves as being ‘friends of the intern’, but to quote an anonymous intern who alerted us to this story:
Its motivations seem dodgy to say the least. It seems more like a grand plan to make money for some of these organisations by lobbying Government under the guise of making internships better.
Our anonymous intern went on:
One of the organisations involved is Luther Pendragon who, it has been discovered, takes on unpaid interns. This is genuinely quite shocking. I have found three adverts for unpaid internships with Luther Pendragon from the past few months: here, here and here.
Luther Pendron will be running a full-scale press campaign for the companies involved – and we have recently discovered that some of these companies pay a fee to Luther to be associated with the alliance.
Our anonymous Intern describes another member of the Alliance – Inspiring Interns – who we have written critically of in the past. They make a profit out of the intern industry – getting a fee for arranging an unpaid internship, and then charging the company if the intern is given a paid job! They also boast of having 10+ unpaid interns themselves. It’s a staggering business model, that uses interns like serfs.
We do not believe they have interns’ rights at heart – and I do not want them speaking for me in the national press.
Someone from Inspiring recently wrote this to try and convince companies to sign up to its scheme:
The answer for many businesses may well be hiring an intern. Interns represent very effective, but inexpensive, labour.
We look forward to being surprised by the Interns Alliance. Anything that ends the current intern culture is undoubtedly a good thing. But we do not think the Alliance is best placed to do this.
Intern Aware is involved, who really do care about getting minimum wage for interns, but as ex-member Tanya from Graduate Fog wrote, she had to spend the Alliance meeting fighting for interns rights. That should be the uniting factors behind an intern pressure group not something to debate!
Tanya left because she didn’t like the morals or the motivations of the companies involved, and as the anonymous intern who originally emailed us said:
I’d seriously consider how it looks for you to be associated with this Internships Alliance group, they seem like they are in it for the wrong reasons.
Beware any press coverage that comes from them over the summer.
NB: Other groups involved, according to a comment on the Graduate Fog website include: WEXO, STEP, Give A Grad A Go, The Student Room, Wikijob, Rate My Placement, Enternships, Student Beans, AIESEC, Brave New Talent and Business In The Community.
Tuition fees and serious questions about the ‘value’ of a degree
Published 05/19/2010 Debate , Education , News Leave a CommentTags: tuition fees
Britain’s leading universities raised the prospect of a massive hike in student fees yesterday as the only means of maintaining standards in the face of public spending cuts.
Lord Browne, the former BP chief who is heading a government inquiry into student finance, is coming under increasing pressure to recommend a substantial rise to the current cap on tuition fees of £3,225 a year.
In one submission to him yesterday, the Russell Group – which represents 20 of the country’s leading higher education research institutions – argued in favour of lifting the cap altogether and allowing universities to set their own fees.
If a degree doesn’t prepare you for a job (anyone tried applying for jobs straight out of uni and had much success?) and it costs £20,000 a year to complete… what is the point?
Do tell us what you think…
Metropolitan Police Report: First Year of training to become an unpaid internship
Published 05/16/2010 Debate , Employment , Public Sectpr 2 CommentsTags: Graduate Fog internships, MET internships, Police internships, public sector internships
Our friends over at Graduate Fog have just brought our attention to this shocking and scandalous story from the Standard and the Telegraph:
As part of an overhaul of police recruitment – to save millions a year in training costs – Scotland Yard is considering making new recruits in London work as volunteer special constables for at least a year before they can apply to become full-time paid Met officers.
This saving of £12 million a year reveals the shocking state of our public finances. Who are the next generation of police officers? Only those who can afford to work for free for a year! Incredible. Absolutely incredible.
One thing is clear. This is a sign of things to come. If you want a job in the public sector APPLY NOW before this becomes the norm.
It’s one thing for small think-tanks or charities to employ unpaid interns… but for an organisation as big as the POLICE FORCE do away with paid training. We are lost for words.
This is a story which will rumble on and on and on. We haven’t heard the last of this one.
Student confronts Clegg over his ridiculous internships plans
Published 04/30/2010 Debate , Jobs , Westminster Leave a CommentTags: Brown and Cameron internships, Clegg internships, election 2010 internships, lib dem interns
See the full exchange here and read about the Lib Dem plans here.
NB: We should point out that however ridiculous Nick Clegg’s plans are, Brown and Cameron are no better. No party is really addressing this issue.
From the Observer.. Graduates: a problem in four parts
Published 04/20/2010 Debate , Journalism 5 CommentsTags: internships at the observer, observer internshipsm guardian internships, tanya de grunwald internships
Tanya de Grunwald has written a great article:
Have you noticed how swiftly online discussion about the UK’s “graduate problem” descends into a slanging match, even on civilised websites like this one? Mention “Mickey Mouse degrees” and watch students, lecturers and employers scratch each other’s eyes out. Everyone gets worked up but nothing is ever worked out. Journalists seem no clearer on the true cause of the problem they’re reporting. It’s the surge in the number of graduates. No, it’s rising tuition fees. Or the recession. Or unpaid internships. Or that we have somehow raised an entire generation of arrogant, grabby young things who don’t know the value of a day’s work. Er, what was the question again?
Her argument is thus:
- Students think of univeristy as an investment to get them a job
- Universities see themselves as facilitators of academic study
- Employers think university should equip people with key skills to do jobs (“They refuse to hire candidates who aren’t work-ready, hence the unpaid internships.”)
And finally…
- Politicians see the grand picture of an educated workforce equalling a strong economy.
She concludes:
In my opinion, students should take a more active role in determining their future – and employers should return to hiring graduates on potential rather than experience. Universities should stop running degrees they know have no real value – and completely overhaul their careers advice services. Politicians should support payment for internships and keep tuition fees as low as possible until we can all promise school pupils that yes, going to university is definitely a good idea. With a fresh batch of 470,000 students set to finish their undergraduate studies this summer and a further 205,000 completing postgraduate courses, we have no time to lose.
We couldn’t agree more.
NB: She also runs a great website full of graduate career advice. Check it out here.
An uninspiring internship?
Published 04/12/2010 Debate 2 CommentsTags: inspiring interns, uninspiring interns
We have been critical in the past of companies like Intern Star who aim to match companies with cheap graduate labour, and make a profit as well.
Inspiring Interns is another such company – which boasts on their website of having 10+ interns working for them at any one time.
A week or so ago we received an account of an internship with them which read more like an advert. We don’t run this site to give free publicity to companies we don’t agree with, so in the interests of fairness we asked another ex-intern to write a rebuttal. Both accounts are below, and you can make up your own minds…
I am currently completing a placement at graduate internship agency called Inspiring Interns. And it’s a company that lives up to its name.
I have found that an ABB A-levels, a 2:1 from a red brick uni and a MA leaves me close, yet so far from an elusive full-time ‘graduate’ job. To my frustration even ‘graduate entry level’ jobs require experience of some sort.
Graduates are faced with a catch 22 situation. Without a job, you can’t get any experience, but without experience you can’t get a job. That’s where Inspiring Interns comes in.
They hook you up with a company who will take you on and train you. The company will pay for your travel and lunch expenses, which many scream is exploitation, but I think is the lucky break that most graduates desperately need. And it’s one of the few offers open to them. Moreover, the majority of Inspiring’s internships lead to paid, full-time roles.
After many a day looking for jobs online, I opted to work for free at Inspiring Interns because I wanted to get out of my house, and proactively do something to get a job.
I’m very lucky. I’m not on the dole. Because if I was, I wouldn’t be allowed to take up this opportunity. I’m not working in Mc Whatever to pay the rent, because I live at home. To put it simply, I’m relying on my parents. But it’s the only way I can move my life forwards.
Most people wait for lucky breaks. I went to Inspiring Interns because they bring them to you.
Across the world, millions of graduates, are sitting at home waiting for a break. They are Not in Education, Employment or Training. Having been told my parents, teachers and politicians, throughout my life that an education will get you ahead, many young people are sat at home disillusioned and depressed, or working in a McDead-end job wondering why on earth they tried so hard at getting ahead in the first place. Luckily with Inspiring Interns, I no longer need to be a NEET.
And the rebuttal:
As a recent intern with friends currently looking for internships, I have recently been made aware of an organisation called Inspiring Interns which proclaims itself as where ‘great interns meet great companies’.
It also proudly boasts that they should know about interns as they ‘typically have 10+ at a time’.
The problem with this marketing spiel is that Inspiring Interns is actually exploiting young people in order to make a quick buck in the recession. You see, none of the interns on their books seem to be paid.
Under their costs section, it details how Inspiring Interns gets £500 per month for arranging the internship – while the intern only receives £220 at most for lunch and travel expenses.
Now, I’m no expert in the legal ramifications of what this organisation does, but this looks to be clearly in breach of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA). By also lining up companies to take interns on which might conflict with the NMWA, Inspiring Interns doesn’t seem to be letting these companies know that they might be breaking the law by offering these internships.
On top of the very dubious work of Inspiring Interns in relation to the NMWA, the company also benefits from using the government’s very own Graduate Talent Pool to advertise these clearly exploitative positions which only a select few can afford. This is somewhat at odds with the whole ‘Backing Young Britain’ campaign the government has been running in recent months…
Oh, and BT – who recently axed their Graduate scheme – awarded Inspiring Interns a trophy for ‘Essence of the Entrepreneur’. An AWARD?! This shows how out of touch BT clearly are if they are handing out awards to people and organisations who are using the national problem of youth unemployment during the recession to make money out of skirting round the NMWA.
I hope that one day soon organisations like Inspiring Interns are not accepted by either interns looking for an internship or organisations who want to commit to offering young people an opportunity which doesn’t involve exploiting them.
Tell us what you think…
Debate about Internships in the Media
Published 04/11/2010 Campaigns , Debate , Film/TV Leave a CommentYou can now check out BECTU’s debate about internships and unpaid work over at their YouTube channel. Part One below.
Shooting yourself in the foot?
Published 03/13/2010 Arts , Campaigns , Debate , Film/TV 1 CommentTags: BECTU, collaboration, film
An Event on Film and Television Internships
Date: Thursday 18th March
Time: 7:00pm
Location: The University of London Union, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY (nearest tube stations: Goodge Street & Russell Square)
In the wake of the recent London Dreams case, which retrospectively awarded an unpaid intern the National Minimum Wage for the hours she worked on a feature film, there has been much debate within the industry about the effect this decision will have. Does the verdict represent the long-overdue protection desperately needed by the industry’s most vulnerable workers, or the death of creativity and collaboration which often provides a stepping stone for those who are new to the industry? Should it be viewed as a victory or a disaster..?
Which? route to take?
Published 03/11/2010 Debate , Employment , Finance , Private Sector 1 CommentTags: london internships, which? internships, graduate jobs
There are loads of people with horrible experiences as interns but my story is different. I graduated with a history degree from the LSE last year and spent 3 months searching for an entry-level job. I have some work experience but not really a lot and given the economic situation I wasn’t very optimistic. I didn’t apply for any internships because they were mostly unpaid and although my parents proposed to support me financially I decided to try it on my own. I became really desperate and applied for any jobs even those for which I was clearly over-qualified and which, to be honest, I’m quite sure I would have dropped out fast.
