Many Politics Students and all of those studying British Parliamentary and Legislative Studies depart in their third year to begin an internship; it’s seen as essential to getting a foot in the door of the Halls of Power. Internships in other parts of industry are also a necessity in getting that vital experience to tip the scales of employment in your favour, such as Fashion, Film and Magazines. A degree can only get you so far, but the connections that could be made in the time working as an intern will be priceless. It’s well known that networking, contacts and ‘having someone on the inside’ will get you that recommendation which seals the envelope of a job offer.
Internships for the large part are free labour. Media and Fashion lap up the young hopefuls looking for work, knowing they’ll do almost anything to get a job that may or may not exist at the end of their tenure for very little cost. MPs will also pick a sprightly, bright intern to help them with their speech writing and other tasks. Whilst these internships are highly coveted, they can be extremely detrimental financially. Especially seeing as it is either nigh impossible or outright forbidden to have any other form of employment; you are without external support, trying to survive only on your student loan. It would be a near superhuman feat to use this to cover rent, food and bills in London. Without support such as parents or a weekend job, one could easily assume that living and working in London on less than £2,500 for 3 months is extremely tough for all those involved.
Internships are essential for many to be able to put their feet on the first rung of the career ladder – but who could do it, without support and without getting into some serious financial bother? The only people who could comfortably and realistically take part in internships are those with other forms of serious income outside of student loans. Typically, these are people who have affluent parents. This seriously limits those with parents who can’t financially support them, the people we believe Labour represents. Giving no financial support to interns is upholding a system of pre assigning position in society due to your family’s wealth. This is detrimental not only to social equality but the core principle of fairness as well. Research shows that those on a comfortable income are willing and able to support their offspring during times of financial difficulty. Simply put, a child of prosperous parents will be supported, while those who come from less well-off families are unable to participate, the ballast of their families’ modest wage tying them down.
A more vulgar example of how internships are being filled by the privileged few is that of the Conservative Black and White Party, at which there was an auction to raise funds for the Conservative Party. Amongst the auction items were available internships at several finance companies, banks and high end magazines and fashion firms.
This outrageous stunt meant that children who were already from privileged and well connected backgrounds were having their internships bought for them by mummy and daddy for about £3000 a job, which would get them more contacts and a further platform from which they can jump up society. That sort of money is not available to most families, and shows the gross discrimination in successful firms against working class candidates. Hull University Labour Club believes that first and foremost, all interns should be paid minimum wage, and eventually a living wage. A fair wage, we feel, would make internships more accessible and would encourage lower class participation within them. To introduce a minimum wage would serve the interests of all to have as many available candidates as possible for positions, as this will then reveal those with the most talent. This is why we believe
that support is possible from every potential intern in any field, regardless of political creed. We encourage the participation of all persons in our support and our campaigning for Intern Aware. We believe this to be especially pertinent at University of Hull which gives so many of our students the opportunity to take part in internships in Westminster. It is a campaign that should be supported not only by prospective and current interns, but by anyone who is involved in the fields that use interns as free labour.
Richard Brooks
Photo: Google Images
Loading ...