Changing internships in the UK...
Welcome to the manifesto site for the Interns’ Campaign for Change.
With the help of our Interns’ Advisory Board, we’ve been crowdsourcing ideas for the Manifesto, and after much discussion have come up with the main issues below.
We plan to put together the Interns’ Manifesto in the next month and would welcome all your votes, comments and discussions!
This is where you can contribute your own ideas for changing internships in the UK so that:
(1) they are open to everyone regardless of their background.
(2) they are of a good quality in every organisation – and not just about making tea and opening the post…
30 results found
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To set up short term ('Halls' style) accommodation in London for Interns living outside of the city.
3 votes -
bursaries so that people from low income backgrounds can afford to do internships
Organisations that follow all the rules when offering unpaid internships (paying expenses, giving proper training and development opportunities, not forcing interns to do set hours or making them do work that they would otherwise be paying someone to do, etc.) are fine in the eyes of the law, but they still exclude people who don't have parental support or savings to live on whilst interning - particularly a problem if internships are full time and/or based in London. It would be great if the government recognised that many graduates could do with the same financial support they received at university…
1 vote -
1 vote
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partnerships between businesses for trading internship standards
london based companies should partner with regional companies to give incentives for trading interns. giving more than three or six month contracts so as to give more sustainable employment and transference of skills to employees and employers. it will also give better incentives for londoner or regional people to experience and understand the english economic landscape. it would also give more security to the interns to focus on building skills and being better quality employees, less stress means better work. this costs the businesses nothing more than a partnership agreement and saves recruitment time.
0 votes -
A letter to companies/MPs advertising unpaid internships reminding them of their duty of care/law
Everytime an unpaid internship is spotted (excluding charities), Internocracy writes to them reminding them of the rules/laws/best practice surrounding internships, whilst encouraging them to consider providing the National Minimum Wage where the placement is longer than 4 weeks.
11 votes -
1 vote
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to allow interns to quit without fear of retribution should they find a paid job elsewhere
My current boss is threatening to ruin my future because I am trying to leave an unpaid internship for a paid one in the same field. The freedom to leave (with 2-weeks notice of course) should be standard practice in internships.
8 votes -
8 votes
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14 votes
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93 votes
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59 votes
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a youth-driven quality mark to identify the organisations with the best internships
This would help young people to recognise where they'll get a good experience and plenty of opportunities.
49 votes -
organisations should have to adhere to a minimum set of standards
...such as a code of conduct for running internships.
34 votes -
24 votes
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23 votes
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An organisation you can turn to protect your rights if being treated unfairly.
If you are interning and have been promised expenses but the boss tries to wriggle out of paying them it would be nice to have someone to turn to who can tell the employer the rights an intern has.
15 votes -
for organisations to define the nature of the work before the internship starts
Just because an advert for an internship sounds great, the intern may be stuck doing admin or duties that should be the remit of paid employees. Organisations should define the expected balance of work and be upfront about the opportunity.
19 votes -
10 votes
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Not to have them focussed purely on 'youth
It seems that training focusses on under 25s - but many people change career later . It's much harder as a 30+, who doesn'twant to do menial work at the bottom when you've worked for years. We priviledge our youth over the rest of society and makes it harder for older people to get their foot in the door.
2 votes -
10 votes
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