Vocal Voices

.This crept in well below the radar.

Those wanting an internship, a step up in the world of work, can now be expected to pay £5,000 for the privilege of working for free.

Who says? A "charity" selling them says. The charity is called the Second Half Centre and is the brainchild of Jill Shaw Ruddock, a former banker - there's a surprise!

If this scheme isn't illegal it should be, and the 'charitable workings' of the Second Half Centre should be looked into with a microscope. If it is not a charity it should be shut down immediately and its operators prosecuted, as should many others - Common Purpose springs to mind.

Disgraceful! The whole idea of internships, another US import we could well do without, is rotten IMO. For internship read slave labour

It is making the professions an almost impossible dream for those who come from poorer families, as their families cannot afford to support them through unpaid internships, so the balance shifts yet again and the professions once again fill up with the offspring of the wealthy, and this country takes yet another backward step

Personally I’d say that degrading education standards, lying about exam results, filling universities with useless degrees for everyone to “pass” is the biggest backward step of any which have been taken. Encouraging people who have no hope of an executive job to take on huge layers of debt to keep them in the education system and not on the unemployment system, is one of the most cynical and socially destructive moves I have ever seen.

Yes, charging for internships is bad news, however, given the lack of confidence in the education system, companies now have to do something to confirm the skills and qualities of the candidates. Internships are just one way of doing this and it is a very effective one too.

I know of a German colleague who was an intern in Sweden. He took that internship to gain the experience to write his dissertation. He was then employed by the company after completion of his degree and fast tracked through to management.

Where internship is destructive is in the areas that it is used to bring in people who they never intend to employ. Something which is not practised as much in America. For one, interns would never put up with it and would avoid these companies.

I recall going to college and re-training for computing after 7 years in the army. When I got out I was lucky (yes lucky), enough to get a place on ET (employment training), which paid me nothing for 4 months whilst I tried to get a placement. I then worked in a company for 6 months for the cost of my travel.

This “internship” allowed me to gain a foothold on a very difficult career path dominated by university graduates.

I view internships with a very different slant. The world is not perfect and nobody owes you a living. You have to give some to get some.

Charging for arranging an internship, however, is, to my mind, petty larceny……

I can see your point to a certain degree, but how are people supposed to live and support themselves whilst they serve these internships? My point being that those who have wealthier parents who can support them will be given a leg up the career ladder, whilst those from humbler backgrounds will not. This will lead to the professions being filled with the offspring of the wealthy rather than on merit! Not a good thing IMO.................

I do agree about the debasement of the university degree, and think that many less academic young people would be better served going straight into employment at 18 or into (paid!) apprenticeships.......

"The labourer is worthy of his hire" stands true IMHO

Suff wrote:I view internships with a very different slant. The world is not perfect and nobody owes you a living. You have to give some to get some.

Another view is this; some professions in this country have had interships under another name for a long time, like the law.
I have a friend (yes, just the one ) who is a barrister. Not bad for a lad off a West Yorkshire council estate. But he had to go through being a pupil to a chambers, which I think was one year unpaid? At the same chambers was a girl from a wealthy family who was driving a VW Golf, paying for everything on daddy's credit card - a marked contrast to Mick.
The point being, the rules in the profession of barrister were made to exclude the oiks as far as may be possible; working for no wages being bloody difficult when you have no money to start with.
Internships, at least in the UK will imo go the same way. It will give entree into the world of priveledge to the sons and daughters of the moneyed classes, and that's all.

I have nothing against internships, as such, for they an important learning process in some professions, and if someone is willing to work for peanuts to learn a trade that's fine - it is up to them. However, for a charity to charge £5,000 to arrange such internships is, imo, morally corrupt and quite possibly illegal. As Kaz and Cromwell point out, it limits internships to the rich or those who can afford to pay.

It could easily be solved with a change in the law so that anyone working, even interns, are paid minimum wage and that internships cannot be 'bought'.