Working-class graduates are being squeezed out of internships
4 min read
This month at the Sutton Trust we’ve taken on two new interns. Highly motivated young people keen to take their first steps in a charity sector career.
Internships are a good way to boost short-term capacity while giving someone a chance to get onto the career ladder.
New research we have published today shows internships are becoming a de-facto route for graduates into professional careers. Over half of recent graduates have completed at least one internship, up 20 per cent on 2018, with three fifths of employers now offering these highly sought-after opportunities.
Sadly, however, the shocking employment practices surrounding these placements are the dirty secrets many companies would rather not talk about.
These practices go some way to explaining another of our research findings; that working-class graduates are increasingly being squeezed out of internships, as their middle-class peers take over.
Depressingly, many employers continue to offer internships that are unpaid or paid below the minimum wage. Most are not even advertised but are accessed through family members and friends or by graduates with know-how proactively approaching employers. Only one in ten is open for anyone to apply to.
If your parents are social care workers, plumbers or even ‘tool-makers’, there’s little chance of you knowing about, let alone getting into, one of these opportunities.
Around three fifths (61 per cent) of internships undertaken by recent graduates were unpaid or underpaid (below minimum wage) – and in this time the gap in accessing internships between those from poorer and better off backgrounds has widened as economic pressures have worsened for families. Now just a third of graduates from working-class backgrounds have completed an internship, compared to 55 per cent of their middle-class counterparts.
It’s shameful that so many employers are continuing this outdated practice
There are, of course, already laws in place that say anyone who is a ‘worker’ – the definition of which includes someone who has a contract and does any form of work rather than just observing – should be paid at least the minimum wage. Most of the internships that are unpaid or underpaid are very likely illegal. But employers are getting away with it because they can. It’s up to interns themselves to report their employers for not paying them.
It’s shameful that so many employers are continuing this outdated practice. Why should anyone work for free? It’s blatant exploitation of graduates who are already saddled with debt and struggling to make ends meet. But in a highly competitive jobs market, those who can make it work by drawing on the bank of mum and dad or living at home rent-free, will do it. This means these plum opportunities are just not an option for most from poorer backgrounds, locking them out of some of the best jobs.
Our polling of employers shows the majority want change on this issue, with 38 per cent saying they would like to see unpaid internships banned while 30 per cent want to see better enforcement of current minimum wage legislation. Three quarters say a ban on unpaid internships wouldn’t lead to a reduction in these opportunities.
Clearly, they could easily make change themselves if they really wanted to, but why damage the bottom line when nobody is forcing you to?
This issue is hugely exacerbated by the longstanding tradition of people in professional careers using their network to find internships for their children, family or friends. Many of us will have seen this before and probably not questioned it. I know I have let it slide at some points in the past and, admittedly, most of us would do this for our own children or family members.
But all of this re-enforces the advantage that family wealth and connections give some people while denying opportunity to the ‘have nots’. It drives elitism and is a brake on social mobility. It also means businesses are not attracting the best talent – just the closest.
This is why the government must step in to make change. It is clear that employers are not going to do this without being forced; they are still too used to taking advantage of loopholes.
At least on the issue of pay, the Government has said it will ban unpaid internships and is due to put out a call for evidence to put this in place. This is one of the very few things in the government’s Opportunity Mission – through which it has promised to ‘smash the class ceiling’ – that is unlikely to face opposition from either the Conservatives or the Treasury. It’s a no brainer and would immediately level the playing field.
Ministers must act today.
Nick Harrison is chief executive of the Sutton Trust
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