UK students and graduates have condemned current employment trends in a recent survey conducted by graduate recruitment website WikiJob.co.uk. Amongst other factors the survey results reveal that 44 per cent of people questioned have taken unpaid internships in the last six months. However 75 per cent of the website’s users believe employers should be forced by law to pay interns.
With youth unemployment hitting a record high of 991,000 in August this year, many graduates are unable to find work, even if they are exceptionally qualified for positions. This is dramatically increasing competition for internships, including unpaid internships, as young people strive to keep their CVs up to date with relevant experience.
Ed Mellet, co-founder of graduate job website Wikijob, commented, “Now more than ever, students, graduates and all young people need to be boosting their CVs in any way they can, whether it is through internships, volunteering or by taking a more entrepreneurial approach to work. Unfortunately by doing this, lots of young people are being exploited by employers who are not paying them the going rate for work”.
Three quarters of WikiJob users said that they believed that internships were essential to securing a graduate job, and despite the strong belief that employers should be forced to pay interns, 58 per cent of WikiJob users said that they would still take an internship, even if it was unpaid.
Despite the government’s recent reforms to the national minimum wage, in which they suggest that employers should be paying anyone who counts as a ‘worker’, there is no real obligation for employers to pay interns anything. With strong competition for internships, this is unlikely to change unless government step in and regulate this shady area of employment practice.
Mellett adds, “Over the last few years government has brought in legislation to protect older workers, disabled workers, temporary workers, etc, etc, but nothing has been done to protect young people entering the workforce for the first time. Consequently some businesses are taking advantage of graduates who have little experience of the world of work. Government should step in and protect these people from being exploited.”
