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Unpaid internships – a double-edged sword?

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Alexandra Szydlowska
WVoN co-editor

Work for free – or not at all… doesn’t sound like much of a choice, does it?

Yet an article published in the Guardian recently illustrates how today’s high demand for unpaid interns means entire professions are being blocked off to qualified young people who can’t afford to work for free, no matter how committed they are.

In an anonymous dispatch, a Cambridge graduate relates her experiences working for the charity sector, revealing how even those campaigning for better ethical standards don’t always see the need to pay their employees.

The author relates a story about an interview she had earlier this year for a three-month unpaid internship with a London-based organisation specialising in using public and shareholder pressure to push corporations to pay their employees a living wage (that’s £8.30 an hour in London, in case you’re wondering).

When the author asked her interviewers outright whether they did not find it a bit ironic that they were looking for an unpaid intern, considering the nature of their campaigns, she was met with an embarrassed response.

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t get the job.

It’s an oft-publicised fact that unpaid internships are rife in the arts and media sectors – and now charity recruitment is no stranger to the rule.

By example, of 61 internships advertised last week on charityjob.co.uk, the UK’s largest charity recruitment website, just two were paid.

The article’s author points out that unpaid internships shouldn’t be confused with work experience or paid internships, saying: “Work experience is a placement of a week or two where you go to an office and see how it feels. Paid internships can be a recruitment strategy to attract potential employees.”

Yet there are many unpaid internships on the market that see overqualified graduates given the responsibilities of a regular employee and working regular hours for anything from a month to half a year.

The benefits?

A foot in the door, perhaps.

The reassurance of not being “out of a job”, certainly.

It used to be that unpaid interns could qualify for Jobseeker’s Allowance. However, unpaid interns are often considered “not available for work” and so they are denied unemployment benefits.

Clearly, somewhere along the line the definition of what constitutes as an internship has become muddled.

The fact remains that given the choice of employing a passionate graduate requiring payment up to or above the minimum wage and a passionate graduate willing to work for free, many companies will opt for the latter.

Of course, whether interns are effective staff members is questionable.

They move on after a few months, so there is a limit to how much training and how much responsibility they can be given and how much time an organisation is willing to invest in their professional development.

But with a seemingly limitless line of graduates looking to rush into the void, it seems that most companies won’t be hard pressed to find a replacement intern – leaving many bright young people struggling to build a career in a sector they are passionate about. Particularly if they can not afford to work for nothing.

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