Willetts can and must do more for almost one million unemployed young people

• Internocracy demands action not empty promises
• Questions the practical impact of voluntary guidelines on such a critical issue

London, 18 July 2011: Internocracy, the UK’s biggest intern organisation, today welcomes both the launch of a common code of best practice for quality internships and the formation of Professions for Good, but laments the lack of practical action for interns.
CEO and co-founder of Internocracy, Becky Heath, said:
“Since the Milburn report cited internships as a key factor in social mobility, we have seen the formation of various panels and groups, yet we have more unpaid interns today than we have ever had – and this trend will continue to grow as our young people become ever more desperate and ignored by politicians.
Hundreds of thousands of interns are relying on David Willetts to tackle the exploitation of labour that they face every day. A voluntary code of practice just won’t cut it – although it’s a great PR exercise for the government.
The formation of Professions for Good is, again, another step in the right direction. However unpaid internships are much more prevalent in sectors not represented in this group, such as politics, media and charity. These popular career choices have the highest incidences of intern exploitation – when will Willetts tackle the real issues affecting graduate jobseekers?”

• Research from YouGov, commissioned by Internocracy, found that only 12% of managers and 10% of young people knew internships should be paid.

• Based on CIPD Labour Force survey, the number of employers considering taking on an intern rose to 27%, up from 15% in 2010.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/_articles/resourcingandtalentplanning150611.htm

• Internocracy’s Internship Quality Mark, Internships in a Box and sector guides are aimed raising standards and reducing the uncertainty that young people and employers experience around the issue of internships.

• For more go to www.internocracy.org

Not sure if your unpaid internship is illegal? You’re not alone!

When we set up Internocracy, we had a lot of questions. What do people know about internships? What about unpaid internships? Do managers know the score when it comes to taking on interns? We spent a lot of time talking to individuals, from interns to employers, and got through a fair amount of tea and biscuits. And then our friends at YouGov agreed to do some research for Internocracy (yes, biscuits were involved). The findings were fairly shocking to us and we’re compiling a paper which will take us a few weeks yet. But we wanted to share the topline figures with everyone so here they are. If you have any questions, just contact us at hello@internocracy.org.

Unpaid internships break the law – but only 10% young people know it

Research commissioned by Internocracy reveals that only 10% of under-35s who have heard of internships know their rights when it comes to working as an unpaid intern.

And employers aren’t faring much better when it comes to understanding legislation around internships: only 12% of managers interviewed who have heard of internships, understand that for-profit companies may be breaking the law if they offer unpaid placements.

The results also found that 84% of employees who have worked in a company that employs interns think that they are a useful addition to their organisation.

It’s clear that the business case of using unpaid interns is no more able to stand up to scrutiny than the legal or moral case.

Internocracy CEO Becky Heath said:

“When such low numbers of young people and employers actually understand the rights interns have in the workplace, it’s no wonder that exploitation is rife in popular sectors where competition for experience is fierce.

The reality is that if an organisation takes on someone to do work for them, whether or not they are called an ‘intern’, they should be paid at least national minimum wage if they are being given responsibilities and are expected to work set hours. ‘Intern’ isn’t code for ‘free labour’ and it’s time companies stopped profiting from exploiting young people.”

Dom Potter, Co-founder of Internocracy said:

“The last few weeks have seen the atrocious act of internships being auctioned off to the highest bidder at the Conservative annual ball. But in reality this is what happens every time an unpaid internship placement is filled: people with fewer financial means or social connections are priced out of the market. With youth unemployment at a record high and social mobility at an all-time low, we simply cannot afford for this broken system to continue.“

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• 10% of 18-35s who have heard of internships understood that unpaid internships may be illegal
• 12% of top, senior and middle managers interviewed who have heard of internships understood that unpaid internships may be illegal
• 84% of people who have worked in a company which employs interns thought that the interns in their organisations were useful
• Furthermore, a majority of people who have heard of internships(59%) think that companies exploit interns as a source of free labour
• Only 9% of people agreed that companies should not pay their interns.

• All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 1,858 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 3rd – 7th February 2011.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
• Internocracy will be releasing a full report with further figures on “The State of Internships in the UK” on 7^th March 2011
• This follows on from a joint report from Internocracy and ippr ‘Why Interns Need a Fair Wage’ released in July 2010 and available at http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=765

Intern meet-ups

Well, it’s been a crazy summer and for those of you who’ve just started or finished an internship, hopefully an enlightening one.

One of our visions when we started Internocracy was to build a social network of interns sharing their experiences and supporting each other. We’ve managed to get people together online, via our Twitter feed, Facebook group and Uservoice page. Hooray!

But isn’t churning through the issues is so much nicer with a decent pint to hand? We think so. That’s why we want you to join us for a beer* if you’re in London on Thursday. It’s a chance to chat to us about your internship, your ideas and what you think the issues are, as well as to connect with other interns living in London.

Cheers!

Where: The George, London Bridge http://bit.ly/10SYk

When: Thursday, 16^th September from 5.30 onwards

Who: Dom and Becky, Internocracy co-founders. Look on our website (www.internocracy.org) for our pictures and call us on 07966032200 if you can’t find us on the day.

*much as we’d love to, we won’t be buying all the rounds, but will be bringing along our favourite biscuits to share

Result? IPSA letter to MPs

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) today release a letter to MPs entitled ‘STAFFING BUDGETS, CONSTITUENCY OFFICE RENTALS AND INTERNS’.

It first came to our attention from The Guardian’s Polly Curtis on Twitter: ‘Ipsa’s ruling means that Westminster interns will be paid the minimum wage and MPs will get more in their staffing budget to pay for it…’

However, Internocracy got hold of the letter to MPs and it isn’t quite as straightforward as that. From the letter:

‘Our position on interns has not changed; when the expenses scheme was launched, our primary concern was to ensure that all those engaged in parliamentary work were treated fairly. This led us to conclude that interns should have a contract of employment.’

Promising. But it goes on to state:

‘for those MPs wishing to engage a new intern now, there are two options. The first is to pay them incidental expenses only. For the time being if an MP chooses this route he or she will have to fund those expenses themselves, as the rules do not allow for reimbursement. This is why we are consulting. The second option is to provide the intern with a contract of employment. IPSA would fund this, but MPs should be aware that they will need to pay such interns at the minimum wage at least.’

So far, so… we’re not sure.  What do you think? Is this the first step to genuine reform of a defunct system of unpaid parliamentary internships or is this another in an increasingly long line of fudges as alluded to by Helen on  a previous blog on this site?

We’ll keep our eyes peeled and fingers crossed. In the meantime, we’ll continue to be pushing IPSA and anyone we can find to help us raise the bar and lower the barriers.

Dom

Guest Blog: Answers for Parliamentary Interns

So the general election is finally over, and the dust is beginning to settle in parliament. The upheaval of coalition negotiations is largely over, cabinet positions have been dished out, and the new parliament is getting into action.

Regardless of your political affiliation, it appears that we survived the election, and the country is still largely functioning.

However, there is one group in Parliament who have been significantly overlooked in all the confusion; you guessed it, interns.

You may have heard of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), they made the press recently for doing some very popular (or perhaps populist?) things like preventing MPs from buying second homes, making them pay up front for their expenses and removing first-class travel perks. Regardless of what you think of the details of those changes, they are unlikely to financially cripple MPs; for someone on £60k+, shelling out yourself to upgrade your train ticket to first class is not the end of the world.

However, what received a lot less press coverage were IPSA’s rulings with regards to staffing, and even less, interns. As the Guardian reported last week, IPSA is effectively forcing MPs to make staff redundant. Under the new rules, staff pension contributions must now be taken from each MP’s staffing budget, which in effect amounts to a pretty considerable cut in the money available to pay salaries. In addition to this, IPSA has increased the minimum starting salary for a Parliamentary Researcher. Whilst bringing Researchers’ salaries in line with those in the real world is good news, reducing the overall pot of money available at the same time means that the ends just don’t meet. MPs are genuinely making staff redundant – I am hopeful that even after the MPs’ expenses scandal, popular opinion would not consider this acceptable.

So how does this impact upon interns? Well, the Campaign for Fair Parliamentary Internships called upon IPSA to make payment for all parliamentary interns mandatory. After a considerable amount of umming and aaahing, and producing a draft proposal which did include this ruling, they then decided not to go through with it. Well, I say they decided not to, there is no public account of the decision-making process, and IPSA have yet to respond to a long-standing Freedom of Information Request about their negotiations, so they may as well have flipped a coin.

However they came to the decision, between the initial draft consultation and the final IPSA expenses scheme, the proposal to pay all interns mysteriously disappeared. It was replaced by the ruling that, if MPs chose to pay their interns, they have to provide them with a contract. Which makes sense. But also logically makes it ok for an MP to give their intern no pay, and therefore no contract.

But if an MP should want to pay their intern, where does the money come from?

The staffing allowance.

You see the problem?

So… no extra money made available for paying interns, no mandatory payment for interns, a decrease in staffing allowance, and an increase in staff salaries. It isn’t looking likely that parliamentary interns are going to be paid any time soon. In fact, I know of at least one MP who has paid her interns for years, and is now faced with the prospect that she simply can’t afford to do it any more.

So after heralding themselves as the body to open up parliament and make the system of allowances fair and accountable, IPSA has effectively taken parliament backwards in its progress towards breaking the link between the ability to secure a parliamentary internship, and personal financial circumstances.

As you may be able to tell, I am a little bitter. I met a very nice man from IPSA about six months ago, and advised them on how they could best create a workable, realistic system which would make life fairer for future interns. He agreed that this was important, he took on board my suggestions in our meeting, my written submission to the consultation, and that of the many, many interns, researchers and MPs who wrote in on this issue. On behalf of all of those who just can’t afford to intern for free in parliament, and who realistically stand little chance of getting a job as a researcher, I’m angry.

I would like to know what happened, why the consultation was ignored, and who decided that further closing access to parliament for those on low incomes was an acceptable sacrifice to make to save a few pounds. However, with an FOI request revealing that IPSA intend to spend over £183,000 on their own PR team to defend the organisation, it seems unlikely that we will be getting answers any time soon.

Helen Undy is a former Senior Researcher and Head of Office for Phil Willis MP

Future Jobs Fund – a savvy saving?

No government funding is ever problem-free, and it can never solve every societal problem. But it seemed to me that the recently-scrapped Future Jobs Fund did address two really pressing issues that perpetuate the problem of access to jobs:

Firstly, the clear benefit was that those young people living in disadvantaged areas could access more opportunities and benefit from some real work experience where they live, without having to go unpaid. Increasing the accessibility of work experiences, whether they are full-blown internships or something more flexible, means that in theory the experience is much more attractive to young people from a variety backgrounds and circumstances.

The second pressing need addressed was that the fund enabled smaller regional and local organisations to get an extra pair of hands, as it covered any cost that might have put an organisation off taking on a young person. With the funding paying for the salary and sometimes contributing towards a desk or other essentials, many SMEs, third sector and arts organisations were just starting to take advantage of bringing in new talent in a low-risk way. Under-resourced organisations can offer a really valuable work experience to a young person, as often they can get stuck in and take on responsibility in a way that’s just not possible in large corporate outfits.

The dilemma seemed to be partly addressed with the FJF, enabling under-resourced organisations to potentially recruit, and giving young people the chance to get some work experience.

It really was that simple – a win-win scenario where young people and employers were all more able to contribute to the UK’s economic development, so badly needed at the moment. From our work at Internocracy with young people from a diversity of backgrounds, we hear about the hundreds of fantastic individual stories that are emerging from the FJF.

Young people, who had lost all confidence in themselves and had reduced their aspirations for what they could achieve, were suddenly reinvigorated; their ambitions rising alongside their confidence as they saw what they were capable of.

For organisations, apart from the fact that taking on a young person or a team of young people would generally help them get more work done, their interns were bringing new views, enthusiasm, a variety of skills and fresh talent to the workplace. In addition, the employer could potentially build a talent pool and recruit, safe in the knowledge that they had worked with and could trust the young person.

So what to do now the fund has been halted and budgets cut? Small businesses are now more cautious than ever – 63 per cent in a recent FSB poll said they would keep employment levels on hold for the next THREE years. What hope for young people stuck in the loop of needing certain amounts of experience to apply for jobs but not being able to get a foothold in a career?

It seems to just be another case of saving in the short-term instead of looking to the long-term consequences. I want to know what will be there for young people in place of government assistance – should we expect SMEs, third-sector, arts and other under-resourced organisations to step into the breech and work out a way of ingraining accessible work placements into the culture of each of their businesses? Or is this asking too much of sectors that are risk-averse at best?

Hello! We are Internocracy

Well, it’s taken us a while but finally we have an Internocracy blog! We’re planning to use it for good, not evil. For constructive discussions on the issues surrounding internships, not bitching sessions. For interns (past, present and potential) and employers alike. We will have guest bloggers writing from time to time, and crucial updates about our Tea and Biscuits habit.

I thought it would be a good idea to start by taking a little look back into why we set up Internocracy, and whether we’re getting anywhere, plus a couple of ‘in other news’ items. Sound good? Then I’ll begin.

Why did we set up Internocracy?

Having done a number of internships between us, and run in-house internship programmes, we found ourselves lamenting the lack of standards in internships, the fact they seemed to exist only in London and were often unpaid. We wondered if young people knew how to avoid exploitation in internships, and how employers could do better for their interns.

What did we start off doing?

We started off with the idea that there had to be a way for young people to be able to identify great internships, in order to avoid the exploitation and complete mis-selling rife in so many so-called internship opportunities. The more we talked to interns, the louder the message became that quality and accessibility were key to helping interns and employers avoid exploitation in internships.

So we set up an independent internship evaluation and accreditation mark: the I.SIP (Internocracy Star Internship Programme) quality mark.

Then, we developed Internships in a Box to help organisations set up their internship programmes in a quality-and diversity-conscious way.

Alongside that, we started a discussion amongst interns about what the big issues in internships are, and how we could tackle them.

How are we doing now?

We soft-launched the I.SIP at the end of 2009, and have since signed ten clients and counting – including our first MP – who are all committed to demonstrating they run top-quality internships. The I.SIP quality mark was also featured in Alan Milburn’s report on Fair Access to the Professions as an example of best practice.

We’ve talked to and advised hundreds upon hundreds of graduate recruiters, professional associations and membership organisations about internships. It seems to be working as we never seem to be out of meetings or events talking to employers about issues they come across in the internships they run.

On top of that, we attended the Interns’ Summit in Parliament in October, wrote some articles about internships in November, won an award in December, went to 10 Downing Street in January, got interviewed by Virgin.com and the Big Issue in February, judged internships at the Yorkshire Internship Awards in March, and did lots and lots of funding applications. Phew!

What’s next?

Our I.SIP quality mark is causing quite a buzz with employers, and we’re in talks to sign up more in the coming months!

We’re still spreading the word about quality internships, and are working with employers to set up a forum to share and understand best practice in internships, so that they can learn from each others’ experiences, as well as ours.

Meanwhile, we’re also thinking of holding our first intern meet-up in London. The idea behind this is to create some sort of network for prospective, current and past interns to plug into – especially important for those coming to London to do an internship and looking to meet people doing the same! The brief for this is open however, as we want it to be useful to those attending – so we expect it to evolve depending on need and demand. More details on this as we settle on a date, venue and format – if you want to be involved get in touch!

In other news…

We’re considering getting an office now that we’re pretty much a full-time outfit. Once we’re settled we’ll post details of where to send the balloons and champagne

And my favourite biscuit is no longer the ginger snap, since Tesco started a BOGOF offer on McVitie’s Caramel Digestives. Yum.