Archive for the 'Polemic' Category

Surely this is illegal? Or The Intern Industry keeps growing…

Published 06/24/2009 Debate , Employment , Polemic , Private Sector 2 Comments

It should come as no surprise that in the same month that thousands of graduates are jettisoned from university into a fierce recession companies like ‘InternStar’ are being launched. Their reason for being: to find unpaid work experience for graduates without any prospect of work/ to find cheap labour for struggling businesses.

“InternStar connects quality interns to internship opportunities in small- and medium-sized British businesses with exclusive access to some of the most ambitious and talented university candidates, young graduates and postgraduates.”

Continue reading ‘Surely this is illegal? Or The Intern Industry keeps growing…’

No Prime Minister

Published 04/23/2009 Employment , Polemic Leave a Comment

Dear Gordon Brown,

I’m getting increasingly furious about the ill-informed and misguided belief in internships as a holy grail of employment prospects. While internships may be a necessary requirement for permanent employment, they do not guarantee it. In my experience, internships are a mere tool of exploitation that benefit only one party – the employer. Moreover, not only do internships not necessarily lead to permanent employment, they are also far from easy to get. I have had enough of people of my parents’ generation advising young people to simply do an internship to increase their job prospects. In today’s fierce graduate job market, an internship is almost as valuable as a paid job and my personal experience has been that many internships have around 300 applicants per post.

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Seven Internships and Counting

Published 04/05/2009 Polemic Leave a Comment

Internships have a good side and a bad side. They are on one hand, an opportunity, an insight, an easy way into massive organisations, opportunities to make brilliant contacts and to work on important and interesting projects. But then, they can also be demoralising, dominated by tea making, checking that your boss’ invoices are in precise alphabetical order and sitting online, waiting for the day to end…

 

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