As a hitherto silent observer on this I thought I'd give my tuppence
worth...
While, ideally, unpaid internships should not exist I think it would be
nigh on impossible to legislate against.
My sister works in politics. She got her foot in the door by going to MPs
and saying "I need some experience, can I work for you?" To which they'd
say, "Yes please! I'd love a researcher. But I literally have no money to
pay you with." She was in the fortunate position of being able to sustain
herself for a limited period of time and got the experience by doing the
work for free.
This was a situation where someone had genuine work that needed doing, and
there was someone prepared to do that work for free. I'd suggest that the
world was/ is a slightly better place for that work being done.
How do you begin to legislate against people choosing to do work that is
there, for free, if they personally can afford to do it? Especially such
that it doesn't affect the other 'genuine' volunteering alluded to in this
thread.
Secondly, I have to say I don't much like the social mobility argument.
Largely because I don't like the idea of social mobility; rather a more
equal society, which doesn't require social mobility in the way being
discussed here.
Accordingly, I don't think it's about equality of opportunity, but rather
equality of outcome: I couldnąt give a monkeys about unpaid internships,
provided there are other systems in place to ensure that people from less
well-off backgrounds are fairly represented.
Cheers,
Mat
On 25/05/2011 17:09, "jennifer gristock" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I'd like to echo the point made by Francis and Rebecca below. As I
>have said already, I'm not lambasting anyone for taking on an unpaid
>internship. But I do believe that the existence of unpaid internships
>furthers social exclusion.
>
>This is not personal.
>
>
>On 25 May 2011, at 11:54, Francis Sedgemore wrote:
>
>> Nor do I. Unpaid internships should not be available.
>
>
>
>> On 25 May 11, at 11:27, Rebecca Hill wrote:
>>
>>> I don't think the onus should lie with those who are able to take
>>> on the internships to not take them on,
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>Jenny Gristock
>
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