In a crowded jobs market, internships offer valuable work experience, but unpaid placements can put employers in a bad light. What is the right strategy for directors?
February wasn't a good media month for the Conservative Party or Julian Vogel, director at fashion PR firm Modus Publicity. Vogel was "stuffed" in a BBC documentary for using 20 unpaid interns and then torn apart by "disgusted" of Twitter. Similarly, the Tories came unstuck after it was revealed in a daily newspaper that City internships were being auctioned at its Black and White party for around £3,000 each.
Vogel defended his company, claiming that it invests in training for interns and that "they usually either get a job here or get snapped up because they have Modus on their CV". It's a tricky business, confirmed Francis Ingham at the Public Relations Consultants Association: "The issue with internships in the industry is a difficult one to talk about sensibly," he said. "In an ideal world everyone would be paid at least the minimum wage but I recognise that doesn't happen and it's some way off from happening."
Vogel may not know that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations has already published a Work Placement Charter for the industry, which helps firms adopt a best-practice strategy and endorses a strong line on payment for placements.
PR is a popular and competitive career for graduates, says the organisation, but this does not mean that employers should take advantage of interns. By only offering unpaid internships, it says, they not only risk breaching the law but may also be denying access to high-quality graduates.
Internocracy, a social enterprise that works with organisations to support and accredit internship programmes, has picked up this theme in its paper, Why Interns Need a Fair Wage. Thousands of UK firms rely on interns to do tasks that are vital to their business, it states, particularly across creative industries such as publishing, fashion and advertising. In return, unpaid interns gain valuable experience, make important contacts and often have the chance to secure a permanent job in their chosen sector. But the report cautions: "Many well-qualified and talented young people lack the resources to pay their own way through an unpaid internship, which could be full-time and last three to nine months."
The government's policy is to encourage employers to pay a wage that reflects both the value of the intern's contribution and the level of training and support offered by the employer, and to make sure that any internship offered complies with the law on minimum wages. There are two exemptions: students studying on higher education courses at UK universities or colleges if placed with an employer as part of their course; and students carrying out voluntary work for a registered charity or doing work shadowing.
Internocracy is lobbying for everyone with an internship to be paid at least the national minimum wage. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on the other hand has proposed a special interns' minimum wage of £2.50 per hour, mirroring the minimum wage rate for apprentices introduced last October.
For now, at least, it's up to directors to decide upon best policy but there are numerous initiatives, university programmes and specialist companies such as Enternships and Give A Grad A Go to help directors do the right thing.
The City of London Business Traineeship scheme, for example, places City-fringe school leavers in summer internships at top City firms. Students receive the average wage for a graduate role, so school leavers from all backgrounds can apply. A popular option available nationwide is the Shell Step programme, a "fully managed service" with a database of 20,000 pre-screened candidates for organisations taking on a student or recent graduate.
Jason Choy, chief executive at security firm Welcome Gate, reckons the scheme does all the hard work and helps you access the "cream of the crop". As a small-business director, one of the biggest challenges he faces is finding time to research and develop projects for the long-term growth of his company. So four years ago, he used Step to place two interns.
As Choy recalls, the process wasn't the time-consuming nightmare he expected, but a roaring success. "At the time we were trying to innovate and launch our own electronic product. Our brief [to the intern] was simple: to find out what parts we needed to build this piece of kit; find manufacturers; and [to find out] roughly what it would cost. By the end of the sixth week he'd made a working prototype and secured an R&D grant. It just showed we needed someone like him to kick things off. It inspired us."
With a few years' experience under his belt, Choy is clear about how to make the placements work for both parties. Give interns "real" projects, he suggests—ones that they can be proud of and that will impress future employers. He says the more responsibility he throws at them the better-"they lap it up". Choy also gives the intern a tight brief and holds weekly progress updates. They're placed for at least eight weeks and are generally unpaid. "We cover all their costs," he says, "and Shell Step pays its students. So we pay its fee and it does all the short-listing for us."
The ease with which the University of East London has helped Sean Jacob find an internship has, he says, been a revelation. Like Step, UEL will source recent graduates, short-list them according to requirements, and send the best to interview for the role. All the university asks is that companies keep the intern for a minimum of four weeks.
Jacob, operations director at Airas Intersoft, says he took two steps to ensure the internship runs smoothly. "We wrote a high-level plan that details what they'll be involved in on a week-by-week basis. We're also staggering each internship. We've got five activities that will be suitable for student placements and will drip-feed them over the year so that we can provide the supervision to make it successful." If they have a real aptitude for the work, he adds, the company will ask them to stay.
Work placements allow small firms to try out candidates before taking them on longer-term, says Cary Curtis, founder of Give A Grad A Go. The fact that he negotiates a weekly salary for candidates means they work harder for the host business, he adds. "We find that quite a few go permanent even before the placement ends. The candidates feel part of the business-they don't look elsewhere or go running off for a paid job. Although paying may seem a turn-off, the more a company puts in the more they get out of it."
