The Inbetweeners: The New Role of Internships in the Graduate Labour Market

However, the proportion of graduates in high-skilled work is in long-term decline: while 61 per cent of graduates aged 21 to 30 were employed in high-skill occupations in 2008, today only 56 per cent are. An oversupply of graduates effectively means that recruiters can more easily attract graduates to work for free or in low-paid, insecure work. In interviews with young people IPPR’s research found evidence of exploitation, poor working conditions and a lack of meaningful work opportunities.

Some sectors, such as publishing, media and the arts, are proving particularly difficult to access for those without a parent in a managerial or professional occupation. These sectors also have particularly high concentrations of internships. For example, film and television accounts for eight per cent of the jobs market as a whole but 16 per cent of the internships on offer.

While there is a lack of data on unpaid internships given they are often informal and often illegal it has been estimated that 1 in 5 is unpaid, though the proportion varies widely by sector. To prevent internships both paid and unpaid from being a barrier to social mobility, IPPR argues that employers need to offer placements to young people of all backgrounds, not just a privileged few:

• Unpaid internships lasting longer than four weeks should be banned in private companies
• A ‘National Opportunity Programme’ should be introduced, offering residential internships for disadvantaged young people from areas which suffer from a lack of social mobility
• Every student should be able to access a brokered work placement at University
• A new association should be established to give a stronger political voice to interns.

Alongside the report IPPR is launching a new guide to fair internships for employers.

The research was funded by Trust for London.