BECTU launches investigation into YMBBT Internships

I do think it's a positive sign that the nature of internships is being scrutinised more closely these days.

A couple of years ago I was trying to help a young relative find a first job and was shocked when I looked at the online job listings. A good proportion of the 'jobs' listed at that time were for unpaid internships. Many were clearly unstructured and, to my eyes at least, seemed to be a blatant attempt by companies to get free help, whilst failing to offer any real training in return. You might have something to add to your C.V. if for instance you have handled the online content for a small startup company, but quite often this help is being requested because they do not have the expertise to do this themselves. You end up training them, instead of the other way around!

If apprenticeships are genuinely structured, with qualifications and classroom time, then within the framework of the current market that can only be a good thing, and a step in the right direction in what is, in my opinion, a very misdirected situation for school leavers.

It used to be the case that, if you were interested in a career in marketing or H.R. for instance, you went and got a junior (paid) job in that sector, saw what the job actually entailed, and then once you had decided that was the career for you, you later took some professional qualifications or a degree in the subject, often at night school. If not, after a few months, you went and tried out another job, or did some temping until you found something you liked. If you were academic you went straight to university and took a degree in a subject like English or Geography, that served as a general recognition of your ability, but was acceptable for a large variety of careers, and less restricting if you decided to swap careers later on. (I am leaving out subjects like medicine from this discussion, as obviously it's a good idea to have some specialist knowledge before you start hacking away at people).

Nowadays,many youngsters jump straight into 3 year degree courses in a subject in which they have no experience, or possibly even aptitude, but have a vague feeling that they might like. The only way you can get prior experience is unpaid internships, which as everyone is mentioning, is really only available with the financial means (or family commitment and help if you are lucky) to allow you to do this. Thus disadvantaging a huge number of young people who cannot afford to do this.

Degree subjects these days can be very specialised, too specialised to allow for easy crossover to other careers if you later decide you do not like your first choice. Now, if you decide to change careers in your 20's after a year or two in your chosen profession (it's happening to someone I know right now) you have to embark on another long academic course to qualify for your new career.

I do think that a combination of the move towards 'degrees for everyone' and the state of the job market, has led to the creation of this 'cart before the horse' situation where many people are wasting time studying for unsuitable qualifications, at great expense, only to then have to throw more money at the situation in order to move towards a career that would genuinely suit them.

Okay, this last point is a personal bugbear of mine, used to work with young people in this situation, and it was always shocking to me to see the casual way in which young, inexperienced people fell into unsuitable degree courses just because it was expected that they go straight to University after school and 'well, I had to study something, and I liked the sound of ..., thought I might like it'.

Ha! No, or I would have failed. I was a temp, hired initially for some basic data entry, and ended up staying for 51 weeks and working on the New Deal section. That meant I was dealing with long-time unemployed people, including potentially violent customers and the odd sex offender. This was in 2004/2005, before the economy tanked, when the long-term unemployed were generally unemployed for a reason....

If I don't secure a job/temp work after my contract ends next week and (god forbid) I end up having to claim any kind of jobseekers I'm dreading the conversations I'll end up having with them...

But as one who also has educated University students I 100% agree with the comments above-I would encourage many, many of those I taught to pursue more vocational things for the sake of careers. And I really hope we see a shift towards more of that otherwise things will only get worse.

I think a substantial part of the problem with employment these days is that management have no loyalty to their staff, expect staff to have no loyalty to their employers, and generally treat employees as expendable resources. The result is that they anticipate that everyone will move on fairly quickly, and see no point in training someone up only for a different company to reap the benefit of that training. Everyone is hired on the basis of the skills they have at the time of the interview, and there's simply no place for anyone looking to learn and settle in to a company for an extended period.

Always a meal at YMBBT for the volunteers between "shifts", with fruit or whatever. And the end of evening entertainment was worth sticking around for on occasions.

Argh, really how many times on this thread do I (and others) have to state: we aren't talking about volunteering at the performances, but the unpaid office based jobs that require a large time commitment with zero compensation.

(But hey maybe they give you harbio in the office too, that makes up for not making a living wage)

Well, that depends. Are we talking Starmix or Tangfastics here?

In fairness a friend and I gave a good go of living on Haribo while on holiday recently. In case you were curious, copious amounts of Haribo, high altitude and excitement over being on a Sound of Music tour makes one a bit loopy...

But I digress....

"These don't look like Alpine goats"
"They're sheep..."