Not just a Third World Problem

Not long ago prospects for graduates and school leavers were said to be at an all time low. In recent years there has been talk of 70 graduates for every available position, or record numbers of unemployed apparently milling the streets staring at the heavens and waiting for jobs to fall. In some camps there seems to be a general attitude of closing ranks and clinging to employment, with those looking for work being left out in the cold.

I attended a family wedding this weekend and was asked by a plethora of relatives whether I had yet secured a job after graduating. Even in the way they phrased the question there was a tone of premature empathy, not dissimilar to the way in which people talk about the death of a pet or some spilled milk. Luckily enough I do currently have a job so was able to return the volley with a description of my seemingly miraculous employment.

I am being a little facetious perhaps given the involvement of family, but what concerns me is the bizarre phenomenon of employment prospects becoming overly pressurised and ultimately paralysed by a perceived scarcity of jobs and the threatening axe of redundancy. Of course times are indeed hard, but shoots of recovery are beginning to show. I feel that its time for employers and employees alike to take a step change to speed the process along.

One great way to oil the wheels of the employment market is to take on interns. Historically Apprenticeships have been a great way to inject young talent and enthusiasm into a trade, and I recently met Glenn Crocker from The National Apprenticeships Service who is doing a sterling job of uniting young people with practical jobs in industry. Internships are a great equal in office based or service industries and I firmly believe its time for more to be made available.

6 months or even 6 weeks of intern work for a candidate provides a two-fold benefit. Provided the employer and intern have selected wisely then they will enjoy a mutually informative process which should yield great value for money for the company and solid experience for the individual.

Admittedly it wont always work out, and there is an overhead for an organisation of any size to take on someone even in an unpaid position. The cost of induction and training needs to be considered and offset against the value the intern can realistically provide. But the majority of Internships I have seen, blossom into full time employment because of the increasingly positive working relationship that occurs when you unite enthusiastic young people with an open minded organisation. Take the employment figures from The University of Surrey for instance. On average 97%+ of graduates are working within 6 months putting them top of UK employability. This is no coincidence, the main contributing factor being the prevalent year in industry intern scheme which plants the seeds for just such blossoming employment prospects.

What I am not in favour of however, is the trend in unpaid Internships. Companies of all sizes are watching their belts, even making use of a few new notches, but this is not an excuse to bludgeon the next generation with oppresive and unfair working conditions. We come back to my original mention of a 'closing ranks' mentality. Increasingly I hear about organisations who sustain unpaid positions telling their interns that the pot is empty, yet cranking up sales incentives and payouts for other staff, or plunging capital into ambitious expansion plans. Some would make parallels between taxpayers and UK bankers at this point, but this does not do the problem justice. A fair days work for a fair days pay. It's not just a third world problem.