Since that fatal day when Nick Clegg decided to expose his concern that unpaid internships were promoting a crisis of social mobility, it seems that the British media simply cannot move away from the tumultuous debate over unpaid internships.
According to research carried out by YouGov on behalf of Internocracy, a social enterprise that generates work experience schemes for employers, almost one fifth of British businesses have confessed to using unpaid internships in order to "get work done more cheaply". YouGov's survey furthermore reveals that, among other excuses offered, unpaid internships have been utilised to enhance the company's profits during the recession.
This research unearthed that 95% of the 218 UK managers who responded agreed that interns were "useful to their organisation". There seems to be no question as to the benefits of unpaid internships for the business, the big question at the moment resides on the side of the intern. Do the benefits of completing an internship outweigh being devoid of financial earnings. For university students the issue of unpaid internships is a real dilemma. While one cannot deny the advantage of boasting an internship under "relevant work experience" on a CV, in such difficult economic times working for free, for any period of time, seems less than appealing.
YouGov discovered that 17% of UK businesses confessed to appointing interns namely as a source of cheap labour. What may come as a surprise to some is that the Internocracy study has revealed that only 12% of company managers and 10% of young people are aware that under employment law unpaid internships could be illegal. The survey drew on the opinions from 2,609 people, only 9% of whom believed that the experience of an internship "was payment enough".
Internocracy chief executive, Becky Heath said "it is disappointing that businesses don't understand what interns are worth and the new talent, energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace." Since the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimated that last summer there were a quarter of a million interns working in UK companies, with the vast majority believed to be unpaid positions, Clegg has sprung into action. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Low Pay Commission have requested that HMRC, the Whitehall department responsible for minimum wage (NMW) enforcement, be tougher on employers searching for such cheap labour.
Tanya de Grunwald, who manages the Graduate Fog website which campaign's for the right's of interns fully supports the action of Nick Clegg claiming that many managers "hide wimpishly behind the defence that they are offering these opportunities out of the goodness of their hearts". She suggests that this sentimentality is nothing more than a ploy to titillate graduates whose career depends on obtaining work experience. For De Grunwald, the notion of graduates wanting to be compensated for their time and effort is palpable.Business lobbyists, the Confederation of British Industry respectfully disagree with De Grunwald, believing that interns expect no payment; they are merely content to be gaining valuable experience. "The reality is that they do not expect to be paid for this," said a CBI spokesperson.
As time goes on, the war over unpaid internships continues to wage. While it would be naive to suggest that graduates are more than happy to potentially fund the cost of living in a different city while completing unpaid work, I believe that for the majority of graduates, unpaid work experience is simply something you approach hoping that in time you shall reap the rewards.
Elise, GRB Journalist
