Work experience. How those two words strike fear into the heart of recent graduates. As the recession bites, hard, on the arse of the unemployed from Exeter to Edinburgh, pimping yourself out to ungrateful employers is, quite frankly, the only way forward.
According to some recent research into youth unemployment, Londoners are most like to take on unpaid work placements, with 48% of people asked agreeing that it was important when looking for a job. Is it right to let young people work for free for an extended period of time? Many placements are only available to those with money behind them because affording the travel costs is strain enough.
The Telegraph reported these shocking figures that reveal 71 per cent of young people in London felt exploited by employers whilst on work experience. A new campaign, Interns Must Be Paid The Minimum Wage, set up on facebook by a few disgruntled students may go some way in increasing the consciousness into the audacity of some employers. It seems unbelievable that the only way to get a job is to engage in slave labour for months at a time, fetching skinny lattes and doing menial tasks. A national scheme to ensure a fair payment for interns would be a major step forward, but I can’t see it happening in a recession.
Don't make tea, make a name for yourself
Some companies are devising ever-weirder methods to sort the wheat from the chaff before the interview process even begins. The Saatchi and Saatchi Graduate Scheme requires candidates to set up a (wait for it) facebook group and, presumably, gain as many followers as is humanly possible. Cue many disgruntled facebook users ignoring umpteen requests to join these groups. Given the number I’ve already been invited to, I’d say competition is pretty fierce.
So, until there is a better way of meeting people, getting your name out there and making an impression, work experience it is. Let the scrimping and saving begin.
Really interesting article. I think we should probably just be grateful for the opportunities we get given from industry proffessionals letting us come into their offices and peep over their shoulders. Good work experience should be treated as a privelege rather than a right, but it’s a two way thing and employers shouldn’t exploit the intern.
I can see why people think some work experience placements should be paid, especially if they’re going on for a long time, but I think it’s just one of the stepping stones we’ve got to hop along to get where we want to go.
I agree that it is a privelege not a right, but if 71 per cent of people feel exploited in placements then something needs to be addressed. I have had good and bad experiences, but I’ve often not even been offered travel expenses. Two weeks of work experience in London is about £50 worth of travel. Not to be sneezed at.
71% is a high percentage, i reckon you’re right that something needs to be looked at.
Travel expenses seems like the way forward because at least then people can afford to do as much work experience as poss without being left out of pocket. What with the ‘ol recession I think we might be left hoping though!
There are some high-status/pay professions where work experience is now essential to get a job; eg journalism / media work. The problem is that this requirement acts as yet another gate slammed in the face of talented people from ‘non-traditional backgrounds’, ie poor-people, working-class people etc.
A huge amount of work experience is organised by friends/relatives/contacts within the industry. If you’re from a poor/working-class/immigrant background you just ain’t gonna have the contacts.
Also, poor/working-class people can’t afford to fuck-off to London and work for free for (sometimes) weeks on-end.
Journalism is already a hideously white-middle-class profession and work experience acts more to sort the posh from the proles than the “wheat from the chaff”.
Another problem is that work exp. has a negative effect of the conditions for those already working in the industry. So long as there is a steady stream of young people willing to work for free, employers can hold-down staffing levels and wages; Journalism suffers from terrible pay rates at the bottom-middle tiers of the profession.
I think a joint campaign by NUS and trade unions demanding minimum wage for work experience is a great idea: http://www.internaware.org The major barrier, unfortunately, is probably not the recession (media companies are still hugely profitable, despite the apocalyptic talk in the industry) but the work-experiencers themselves. Far too many middle-class graduates actually benefit from the status quo. Why would they want to level the playing field?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam Tinworth, N Roberts. N Roberts said: Interesting new campaign for minimum-wage for work-experience: http://bit.ly/8WBMY6 & some thoughts from @rhiannon_88 : http://bit.ly/7eEaKJ [...]
Nice blog Rhiannon. Thought you’d be interested to read that Celia Walden at the Telegraph has also been thinking about work experience students as slaves.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/7050035/My-whipping-boy-is-getting-plenty-of-work-experience.html#comments
[...] Interns as slaves, discuss. « Thrift and Scoop Bit depressing when free labour is the only route to the job you want. And what about people that can’t afford to be without an income? Middle class jobs for middle class kids. (tags: journalism workexperience education newspapers) [...]