The elusive internship
There are a lot of discussions at the moment about graduate prospects and whether there is the proverbial light at the end of the degree tunnel. The Guardian recently reported that there are now 70 applications to every available vacancy and “that nearly 78% of employers are insisting on a 2.1 degree, rendering a 2.2 marginal…” The article then went on to suggest a wide range of work experiences including that graduates should “consider flipping burgers or shelf stacking to build skills”. But the article strongly recommended taking up internships, boldly suggesting that “the only way was unpaid work. ” The value of taking up an internship has never been questioned; the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) recently suggested that “some employers are even using internships as a way of assessing potential new recruits.”

However, the unquestionable value of an internship is compromised by the view that it is only accessible to a select few, namely, that class of privileged middle and upper class students. This is because most internships are unpaid in spite of the fact that most run for a period of 3 to 12 months. This fact, it is alleged, hampers social mobility and condemns students with limited means to very limited access to certain professions as they are put off from undertaking an internship. Organizations such as the National Union of Students and the Trade Union Congress have argued for paid internships alleging that “in the absence of any remuneration, there is potential for an intern to be exploited.” On the other hand, the government through reports such as the Milburn Report, have suggested that the long term benefits of undertaking an internship in terms of career prospects and potential high earnings justify the current system of unpaid internships .

The above arguments are further compounded by the report in December 2009 in the Telegraph, that some internships are on offer for up to £8 000 through recruitment agencies. Additionally, the NewStatesman recently reported that an auction was held at Oxford University where individuals had to pay £300 to take part in the bids and among the “items on offer” where a mini-pupilage at One Essex Court with Neil Kitchener QC and one public relations & marketing internship at the London office of fashion house, Escada. Thus Laura Pennie writing for the NewStatesman rather apocalyptically concluded that “Any graduate or school-leaver without the means to support themselves in London while working for free can currently forget about a career in journalism, politics, the arts, finance, the legal profession or any of a number of other sectors whose business models are now based around a lower tier of unpaid labour.” I wouldn’t put it so bleakly.

Where does all this leave me?
Reading the above articles made me reflect on the reality of my own internship and the cost at which it had come. Like most internships available in London, mine is unpaid, a fact which has left me to fund my transport and other costs by taking up part-time employment on weekends. Additionally, I was fortunate to have been offered the option of either turning up five days a week or three days a week in order to save on costs. I opted for the three day a week option mostly due to the cost of transport from my home in Kent to the Friends of the Earth offices in London. But I’m not alone in this, a university friend of mine, had to consider transport as well as accommodation costs in order to undertake his mini-pupilage in London. What is my view on the current state of internships, should they be funded as the CIPD suggests and are they as invaluable as most people suggest? I cannot provide an immediate answer to these questions but I will draw my conclusions in subsequent blogs as I reflect on my experiences during my three month internship at Friends of the Earth.