Un- and underpaid internships
Sure, you can 'work'. Just don't expect a job at the end of it
Most domestic employers would not, I think, insist on geology – a Russell Group geography degree would do just as well – but let's not be picky. It would be a pleasure to have any pleasant, highly educated, preferably strong, young girl to assist with tidying and housework, knowing this will progress her career as choreographed by the government's "sector-based work academy".
Frustratingly for those of us hoping to mentor the young in this way, the free geology graduates are only being distributed at this time to larger, commercial partners such as Tesco and, of course, Poundland, where Ms Reilly was ordered to fulfil an unskilled placement – ie, one which might have been filled by a less-qualified peer, a process the Department for Work and Pensions has defended as preferable to "leaving people at home doing nothing".
Now that Ms Reilly is hoping to bring her case for "forced labour" to court, there may be an opportunity for the department to justify its moral spin on supporting the indigent, one reminiscent of the bracing, Salvation Army approach Orwell described in Down and Out in Paris and London. It was the hostel officers' habit, he reported, to enforce an early night, then rouse the tramps, pointlessly, at seven, "shaking those who did not get up at once".
Gill writes: "The Job is arranged through an elaborate old-boys’ network of work experience and internship that has little to do with academic success. It’s unpaid, or barely paid, and getting your children into the right niches is as competitive and rigorous as it was getting them into the right nursery. Just another step in the relentless game of middle-class one-upmanship.
"The names of the runners on film sets or the assistants in TV companies read like the sons and daughters of a Who’s Who in the arts world. Only the very affluent urban middle class can afford to support children in jobs that don’t pay a living wage for years at a time.
Disclaimer: rabble.ca relies on interns' donated labour to make the site run. While they are not unpaid, the honorarium (not wage) is not at market rate.
A tricky issue, as at my work, the "unpaid" labour is often more trouble than it's worth for their "internship". Four weeks are not enough time to learn the complexities.
I'm interested in the topic because I did gain a job through my internship, twice, and don't begrudge it. Perhaps, it is becoming too much of a pre-requisite and not voluntary. That's how I see it.
The corporation should pay tax based on the value of the work in market terms. The fact that they don't pay taxes on the gift is another usury issue, as well as time in for holiday eligibility, seniority is screwed up, the whole volunteer time is invisible to employer record systems very often. I don't think workers benefit from this exploitation. The ones who do are rare I would bet.