Interns: trainee or teamaker?

Learning & development / 01 August 2011

Internships have attracted controversy over lack of pay and claims of exploitation, but managed properly, they offer benefits to both the intern and the employer. Sue Weekes investigates

Internships have been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent months. Some employers have been accused of using interns as cheap or slave labour, a practice heightened by the recession as experience-hungry young people are seen as a way to plug gaps in depleted workforces.

Earlier this year, internships were the subject of one of the coalition government’s most high-profile spats yet, with Nick Clegg calling for an end to who-you-know unpaid internships, which he feels are an obstacle to social mobility. Meanwhile, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, David Cameron said he was “very relaxed” about giving friends’ children work placement and internship opportunities.

Some industries are worse than others when it comes to taking advantage of those eager for their first break, and the media is often accused of employing this practice. In May, in what could turn out to be a landmark case, 21-year-old journalism intern Keri Hudson successfully sued TPG Web Publishing over an unpaid internship. She was supported by the National Union of Journalists’ Cashback for Interns campaign, and an employment tribunal declared she had a right to be paid for work carried out over several weeks at the website My Village.

Slave labour?

Francis Ingham, chief executive at the Public Relations Consultants Association, says the slump in graduate recruitment is accentuating the issues surrounding interns. He calls for employers in his own and other industries “to get it right”. “We need to be clear that using interns as unpaid slave labour just isn’t acceptable,” he says. “There is a nuance though: in striving to treat people better we need to be careful not to close down opportunity.”
Carl Gilleard, chief executive at the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), says a proportion of its members do offer internships and most are paid. The AGR believes employers should pay their interns, but Gilleard says: “At the end of the day, if there are genuine intern opportunities where employers are unable to pay, then it is up to the individual to make a decision whether or not to take up the internship.” 

If it’s a case of the intern doing work and tasks straightaway, they get paid. If a company wants to train up the graduate as they are not yet ready for the role, then it may be lunch and travel expenses.

Francis Ingham, chief executive, Public Relations Consultants Association

If an intern is doing the job of a worker, they should receive the National Minimum Wage. In the case of Keri Hudson, the tribunal found her to be a worker in law even though she didn’t have a written contract. With the practice of internships fraught with grey areas and fine lines, though, defining an intern’s status isn’t always easy. And rather than bring some welcome clarification for employers, the government’s own practices in this area merely serve to cloud the issue. “There’s utter hypocrisy here,” says Ingham. “Clegg may call for action on interns but the worst offenders are his parliamentary colleagues who advertise an astonishing number of absolutely unpaid internships.”

In 2009, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) introduced an Internship Charter, a voluntary code of practice aimed at improving the quality of schemes. The charter sets out six principles and offers guidance on pay, stating that if an internship is unpaid and provides only expenses, it should last no longer than four months.

The charter was in part spawned by campaigning work done by the company Inspiring Interns to counter the negative publicity around internships. The business was set up just over two years ago and matches graduate interns with suitable opportunities. Its marketing manager Andrew Scherer says it tells employers to consult the charter.

The internships the company arranges are typically three months long and, while some are paid, others provide the intern with lunch and travel expenses depending on the role. “If it’s a case of the intern doing work and tasks straightaway, they get paid,” he explains. “If a company wants to train up the graduate as they are not yet ready for the role, then it may be lunch and travel expenses.” He adds that Inspiring Interns refuses to work with companies that are not interested in training the graduate.

Quality control

Payment and accessibility to people from all parts of the social spectrum are key issues surrounding internships, but employers also need to adopt best practice when it comes to managing the process. The quality of the internship is very much down to the person assigned to look after and manage the intern. The CIPD charter states that interns should receive a proper induction and organisations must ensure there is a dedicated person who has ring-fenced time in their work schedule to supervise them and carry out regular performance reviews.

Employability skills of candidates are the single most important consideration for 82% of businesses, according to the 2011 Education & Skills Survey by the Confederation of British Industry and Education Development International. Internships are one of the best ways to build these and help to make young people better prepared for the workplace.

This is one of the driving aims of Career Academies UK, a charity set up by the business community in 2002 that aims to raise the aspirations of 16 to 19-year-olds, predominantly those living in urban areas of social need. Students follow what the charity calls a two-year enrichment programme alongside a curriculum that is equivalent to at least three A-levels, and this can include a six-week paid internship.

David Walker, Career Academies UK’s director of programme and public policy, believes internships should be paid to ensure they are accessible to those from all social backgrounds. However, he says it is vital that the relationship works for both sides. “Employing them for six weeks, paying a wage, and giving them a job description and work to do means they are taken seriously by the organisation,” he says. “It also provides a real opportunity for the company to use the internship in a structured way to develop their own managers.”

Practicing managers

Walker points out that when appointing internship supervisors, employers look closely at people who have the capacity to be managers and give them an intern to manage for six weeks. “This can then become part of the annual appraisal,” he says.

Amanda Hines, head of people management at Virgin Trains, was assigned three interns from Ellowes Hall School in Dudley through Career Academies UK. She was training and development manager at the time and put together a comprehensive programme for the students that included spending each day in the first two weeks in a different business area, such as station offices, on-train services and the head office.

Hines says the main challenge for a manager is to remember that the interns are young adults and not children. “Though they should be mindful of their knowledge base and experience, these young adults have a thirst for knowledge, experience and a real passion to learn, contribute and add value to any business,” she says. “So don’t make too many allowances, treat them as you would any new employee.”

She recommends that managers prepare well by ensuring the intern knows the basics of what the business is about before they undertake any tasks. “Ensure you give them real day-to-day work that adds value and so that others within the department can feel the benefit of the intern,” she says. “This will provide the intern with confidence and make them feel part of the team, as well as creating a sense of loyalty to your business for the future.”
Scherer says interns can bring fresh thinking and provide new perspectives on working practices that the company might not have considered. Internships have the best chance of succeeding for both sides if the employer takes a structured approach to them, he says. “If it lacks direction from the start, people get frustrated. There can be some flexibility if an individual wants to see different areas of the company, but having a firm outline is a major component of a good internship.”

Another reason for internships failing is when the intern and company do not match up. Scherer stresses that Inspiring Interns puts a lot of effort into matching, and graduates are even psychometrically tested. As a result, its internships have a drop-out rate of only 2-3%. “When employers try to hire themselves, they don’t always know what to look for and then find a couple of weeks down the line that the intern isn’t right for the company,” he says.

A good match

Career Academies UK similarly puts a lot of effort into the matching and interviewing stage, and tries to align a student’s interests with the role or department they will find themselves in. “We also ask the employer for a full job description like for any other job,” says Walker.

The CIPD’s charter advises that interns are recruited in “broadly” the same way as regular employees, with proper consideration given to how their skills and qualifications fit with the tasks they will be assigned. In the longer term, Scherer believes there will be a shift in the UK towards the European approach of embedding internships within undergraduate courses rather than students seeking them afterwards. “Lots of studies show graduates aren’t ready for the world of work,” he says. “In Germany and France there’s a real culture of internships as part of your study, and it’s something we need to catch up on.”

Students at the ESCP Europe Business School complete one internship per year. Laura Raznick, the school’s head of student careers, says internships help improve soft and technical skills, provide students with insight into an industry or job, and give them more confidence about their next career move. From the employer’s viewpoint, she says feedback forms report that the interns are “fast learners, highly motivated and use their initiative. Many organisations that have never had an intern before ask for more in the future because of the positive experience,” she says. 

The bad practices that surround internships can’t be cleared up overnight, and the current fiercely competitive job market and tough economic climate will continue to blur the boundaries between when an opportunity turns into exploitation. Charters, calls for action from politicians and campaigns from industry bodies all help the cause, but ultimately it will come down to the employer and individual managers to ensure internships are a win-win for both sides. While pay is important, Ingham points out that “an internship that pays but delivers nothing more involved than how to use the photocopier and the kettle isn’t much value either.”