The Student Room Group

London Zoo 'seeks unpaid intern with Master's'

Poll

Should unpaid internships be banned?

It's hard to stomach, but the unpaid internship is still alive and kicking, it seems.

This latest example comes from London Zoo, which has been advertising a six-month internship on a conservation scheme for which the only payment is five quid a day for lunch, plus local travel costs.

That's six months of work (four or five days a week) for nothing. And the experience requested of applicants? An undergraduate or Master's degree.

Full story on Graduate Fog.

What's your take on unpaid internships? Are they a valuable source of experience for recent graduates or simply exploitation?

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Bit out of date, but according to this ZSL pay their CEOs somewhere in the region of £150-160k.

To offer a master's graduate a 6 month unpaid internship seems outrageous.
Equality of opportunity only exists for those how can afford internships... Never mind the piss taking of not being paid for your work.


What's next? 'voluntary' shelf stacking at TESCO? :lol:
(edited 8 years ago)
if your life's dream is to work at London Zoo then this would be brilliant.
In other words: we are seeking a rich kid whose parents can pay for a six month long holiday in London.
Original post by the bear
if your life's dream is to work at London Zoo then this would be brilliant.


Providing you have the funds.

Poor people need not apply.

Original post by driftawaay
In other words: we are seeking a rich kid whose parents can pay for a six month long holiday in London.


Or someone who has worked hard and saved up enough and is willing to blow a load of savings living in London for 6months with no income.

But your point still stands.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by driftawaay
In other words: we are seeking a rich kid whose parents can pay for a six month long holiday in London.


As someone who studies at London zoo generally the people doing these internships usually already live in London.

They do take the pics though, the other day we had an email round asking if anyone wanted to spend 3 weeks sifting through camera trap photos for free (well for lunch and travel)

What I will say though is IoZ also offer a lot of good internships as well - for example a friend of mine is now working abroad with living costs paid on an amazing conservation project. It's not paid, but if your living costs are covered I think that's OK.
Original post by redferry
As someone who studies at London zoo generally the people doing these internships usually already live in London.

They do take the pics though, the other day we had an email round asking if anyone wanted to spend 3 weeks sifting through camera trap photos for free (well for lunch and travel)

What I will say though is IoZ also offer a lot of good internships as well - for example a friend of mine is now working abroad with living costs paid on an amazing conservation project. It's not paid, but if your living costs are covered I think that's OK.


Why is it that those on the ground are willing to work for peanuts but those at the top of the charity think they deserve/need 150k salaries?
Original post by shooks
It's hard to stomach, but the unpaid internship is still alive and kicking, it seems.

This latest example comes from London Zoo, which has been advertising a six-month internship on a conservation scheme for which the only payment is five quid a day for lunch, plus local travel costs.

That's six months of work (four or five days a week) for nothing. And the experience requested of applicants? An undergraduate or Master's degree.

Full story on Graduate Fog.

What's your take on unpaid internships? Are they a valuable source of experience for recent graduates or simply exploitation?



Having fully read the article I'd like to point out this is really standard at Zsl/Cp - it's not a case of expecting a masters as such, more that they will probably be looking for a current masters student partnered with zsl for their masters to take on the role of they can't find a job when they finish. At any one time there will be maybe 10-20 interns in the department with various degrees/postgraduate degrees. These sorts of posts allow people to keep themselves in research while they find a job. Even people with PhDs do it - research funding is patchy and you often need to be filling gaps in employment with unpaid work - especially stuff like this that will expand your skillet.

Sure, it'd be nice if it was paid, but these posts just wouldn't exist if they were.
Original post by ChaoticButterfly



What's next? 'voluntary' shelf stacking at TESCO? :lol:


That already exists. It's called the Work Programme.


As for the actual internship, it doesn't surprise me. Conservation/environmental work is highly competitive, so you need plenty of work experience to secure a paid job. While probably not applicable to London Zoo (I think they are probably taking the piss a bit), many conservation schemes are poorly funded, they have no option but to rely on volunteers.
So we spend all this money acquiring qualifications, to work for free...
...

Original post by ChaoticButterfly
Why is it that those on the ground are willing to work for peanuts but those at the top of the charity think they deserve/need 150k salaries?


Cp is a small part of Zsl - the part that executes the overseas research projects. The vast majority of funding in Cp comes from research grants. The head of Cp won't earn anywhere near that much. They're trying to bring the different departments in so they're more joined up but as it stands the London zoo bit - which is most of what the ceo does - and Cpay as well be financially distinct.
Original post by redferry
Having fully read the article I'd like to point out this is really standard at Zsl/Cp - it's not a case of expecting a masters as such, more that they will probably be looking for a current masters student partnered with zsl for their masters to take on the role of they can't find a job when they finish. At any one time there will be maybe 10-20 interns in the department with various degrees/postgraduate degrees. These sorts of posts allow people to keep themselves in research while they find a job. Even people with PhDs do it - research funding is patchy and you often need to be filling gaps in employment with unpaid work - especially stuff like this that will expand your skillet.

Sure, it'd be nice if it was paid, but these posts just wouldn't exist if they were.


I don't know the facts but I do not believe that the charity can not afford to pay min wage...

If we had a UBI then people could volunteer to their hearts content :angry:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Quantex
That already exists. It's called the Work Programme.


As for the actual internship, it doesn't surprise me. Conservation/environmental work is highly competitive, so you need plenty of work experience to secure a paid job. While probably not applicable to London Zoo (I think they are probably taking the piss a bit), many conservation schemes are poorly funded, they have no option but to rely on volunteers.


Cp (the department this is in) is funded entirely separate to London Zoo so the same thing applies.
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
I don't know the facts but I do not believe that the charity can not afford to pay min wage...


On that particular research grant it's clear they can't, else they'd be offering it.

IoZ/Cp are more research institutions than charities tbh
thats hilarious! it should be a phd!
Reply 16
The National Trust also relies a lot on unpaid work.

I think unpaid internships shouldn't be allowed above 3 months. However short-term unpaid internships should definitely remain legal as it's the best way to get work experience.
In France, almost all unpaid internships have been banned recently and it I think it has made more difficult to find entry-level jobs for graduates since it's now almost impossible to build a CV with interesting experiences. Nowadays, the only fresh graduates who find real jobs are those with family connections.
I say its fair on the london zoo to seek unpaid interns.

the experience you get out of it will help your CV, and will stop people like Keyhofi setting up stupid threads like this http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3717367

People that actually are committed to find a job and plan ahead are the ones going to end up in the best jobs.
(edited 8 years ago)
I think, anything more than 3-4 weeks, should be paid. Even then, 1-4 week placements should at least cover expenses, including any travel or food costs. I'm sorry but even if it helps my CV, I would want to be remunerated for the tasks I do - which often time help the bottom line of the company. Working unpaid for 6 months is a ridiculous expectation, one that is steeped in elitism and trying to pressurise less well off graduates into holding multiple part time jobs in order to even survive at these places.

I feel without these interns, certain activities/tasks wouldn't get done, and as such I feel they are a business NEED, which should be paid for. It's plain and simple exploitation of labour otherwise.
There's a difference between working and shadowing. If you're cleaning out pens, it's work and should be paid. If you're watching someone else clean pens whilst they describe their techniques and equipment, it's shadowing and doesn't need to be paid- you're benefiting from it more than the company does. Shadowing leads to a trained employee from the company and a job for the employee- win/win :smile:

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