To add my 2p, I also think it really depends on the quality of the work experience available.  I’ve heard horror stories about interns used as little more than free slave labour, but also good examples of interns being given meaty projects that give them a very useful experience.

 

The charity I work for, Cancer Research UK, runs an award-winning internship scheme (http://supportus.cancerresearchuk.org/volunteer/internship-scheme/ ). Although these are voluntary, the charity pays travel and lunch expenses.  I’ve known of many of our interns who have subsequently ended up getting highly competitive jobs within the charity sector.

 

Also, from the organisation’s perspective, it can actually take up an awful lot of time and energy to train and manage interns  (assuming you’re actually trying to give them a worthwhile experience that benefits them, and not just standing them in front of a photocopier) which costs the charity money.

 

Anyway. I think it’s important to keep having these discussions and raising awareness of the issues. I agree it would be a shame to slam the door on opportunities for people to gain valuable experience in a highly competitive field, but at the same time, nobody wants to see people being exploited.

 

Kat Arney

 

 

Of course people want work experience, and sometimes simply as a chance to try something out rather than as a path to a job. The problem is keeping that going without reinforcing the culture of working for free. 

 

One way to do that is to keep asking if the organisation in question, even if it is a charity, really cannot afford to pay six quid an hour, which I assume most of us who have (or once had!) jobs regard as pitifully small.

 

Another, occasionally, is internal pressure. Someone I know well recently declined on principle to manage an unpaid intern in a company which is cash poor but needed essential labour. Result: they agreed to pay minimum wage.

 

The principle, I should add, was not exploitation as such, but that unpaid experience becoming a de facto requirement for certain jobs means that only those who have cash, or parents with cash, can do them. 

 

A family ticket to At-Bristol, incidentally, costs £35.50.

 

Jon Turney

Science writer, editor, lecturer.

Author: The Rough Guide to the Future (2010)

blog(s) at
http://unreliablefutures.wordpress.com/

and
http://bristoljazzlog.wordpress.com/

www.jonturney.co.uk

twitter: jonWturney
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