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Is it good to ban unpaid internships?

Hmm, there is another side of this. Employers will start choosing interns more careful and number of internship vacancies will go down. It would be impossible to get any work experience for student, who does not have anything except good grades.

Reply 41

jelly1000

21

Even if interns were paid the minimum wage or London Living wage, that wouldn't necessarily be the magic bullet for making them more open to those from lower income households outside London & home counties. Many are based in London where as we know rent is expensive, so if you lived too far away to commute you'd struggle on the minimum wage and you'd have to live very frugally on the living wage if you didn't have bank of Mum and Dad to top up- basically like a student again. Another issue is their temporary nature means they don't offer job security, which is more likely to be something those from low income housesholds need, as they are less likely to have Mum and Dad to fall back on if the internship ends and they haven't got another paid job to move in to. And how many house contracts do you get that are 3 or 6 months, the typical length of most internships?

To add my own experience with internships though: I'm a graduate currently undertaking a paid one. I'm fortunate that a) my parents live in London and don't charge me rent and b) the move to paid internships in my sector doesn't seem to have stopped places offering them. They are super competitive though, each one tends to get around 80- 100 applicants, but in my industry at least you can get in without connections- I certainly didn't have any

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 42

username47781

20

Completely agree with this, they need to be banned.

Reply 43

2007PSanHa

19

I'm currently on placement year (40 weeks) in a college and it's unpaid. I could only manage this by living at home and the college gave me a free bus pass (a lot considering my bas pass would normally be approx. £1000)! I really don't mind working for free in the education sector as I know how little money they have to work with. I think that I would have struggled to get a payed internship as I have very little work experience. I also think that volunteering as opposed to being paid will show that I am not working for the money. So no, I don't think that unpaid internships should be banned. You have the choice whether you accept a paid or unpaid internship. However, I will note that there seems to be a lot of funding for those working abroad (paid or unpaid) and there is no funding available for me even though I am working in the UK and am unpaid. Surely this should not be the case.

Reply 44

Yaboi

17

Original post by 2007PSanHa

I'm currently on placement year (40 weeks) in a college and it's unpaid. I could only manage this by living at home and the college gave me a free bus pass (a lot considering my bas pass would normally be approx. £1000)! I really don't mind working for free in the education sector as I know how little money they have to work with. I think that I would have struggled to get a payed internship as I have very little work experience. I also think that volunteering as opposed to being paid will show that I am not working for the money. So no, I don't think that unpaid internships should be banned. You have the choice whether you accept a paid or unpaid internship. However, I will note that there seems to be a lot of funding for those working abroad (paid or unpaid) and there is no funding available for me even though I am working in the UK and am unpaid. Surely this should not be the case.

what the ****, a year?

Seriously?

Reply 45

2007PSanHa

19

Original post by Yaboi

what the ****, a year?

Seriously?

Yes, it was optional though!

Reply 46

username878267

15

Original post by Josb

Big museums, yes.

I think that not-for-profit institutions shouldn't have to pay for interns, and that internships should have the same incentives as apprenticeships.

Does that include charities? It hardly fits in with the ethos of a charity to not pay your interns.

Reply 47

tazarooni89

20

Original post by Bornblue

That sort of logic is what leads to children in Nike Factories working for about 2p an hour.

Indeed it is.

It's unfortunate, however the way to increase the bargaining power of those children is by providing welfare to enable them to have a certain basic standard of life before even needing to work (equivalent of this country's JSA and other benefits).

I don't think simply banning the practice helps anyone. It would just leave those children jobless and penniless too. This is a symptom of a bigger problem.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 48

Josb

6

Original post by Bornblue

Does that include charities? It hardly fits in with the ethos of a charity to not pay your interns.

Well, if they pay their interns they won't have as much money for their activities...

Reply 49

2007PSanHa

19

Original post by JohnGreek

Oh dear.

Uh oh, I think I was half asleep when I wrote that! That's why I don't write my assignments late at night ... they never make any sense the next day!

Reply 50

Eleanor Mary

1

I have done unpaid internships myself in the Photography and Fashion Industry and found that they are an excuse employers use to get unpaid workers. They often get an endless string of unpaid interns rather then offer and paid positions leading to less jobs. They teach enthusiastic young people that thier work and thier time are work nothing which can be damaging to their self esteem.

Reply 51

L i b

19

Volunteering also looks good on a CV. Are we to ban all forms of volunteering too?

Is it good to ban unpaid internships?

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