Unpaid Internships Lead To Lower-Paying Jobs, Study Finds (theguardian.com)

The Guardian reports: Almost every graduate taking an unpaid internship can expect to be worse off three years later than if they had gone straight into work. That is the shock finding of the first survey of its kind of the career trajectories of tens of thousands of students over a six-year period. The study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, reveals that, three-and-a-half years after graduating, former interns face a salary penalty of approximately £3,500, compared with those who went straight into paid work, and £1,500 compared with those who went into further study... The study also found that those who took internships were less likely to go on to professional or managerial roles or be satisfied with their career compared with those who had gone straight into work.
Slashdot reader BarbaraHudson warns unpaid internships are also "a possible indicator of a large oversupply of workers to jobs available and downward pressure on pay." Anyone else want to share thoughts about the current job market for professionals -- or your own horror stories about your first job after college?

Comments

US parent here

[rsilvergun]

Not sure about the UK, but in the States you use unpaid internships to help get into your 300 level courses. After 30 years of budget cuts schools don't have enough space for all the applicants in most majors (especially medical, and not just full medical doctor, think Nursing, pharmacist, physical therapist, etc, etc). Even a perfect GPA won't guarantee you a spot anymore. So you volunteer, do extracurricular stuff and finally internships. My kid got lucky and got what's more or less a paid one. But it's like winning the lottery what with the number of applicants.

Re:US parent here

[Anonymous Coward]

I assume by 300 level you mean upper classmen junior level at university. I suppose that depends on your kid. If they enrolled as a freshman they don't need to do internships assuming they actually passed their 100/200 level courses to go on. Most 300 level courses in engineering for example have prerequisites that you pass the previous 200 level courses with a C or better.

If they attended a junior college first, then yes I can see that it's competitive to get enrolled unless you have excellent grades and something meaningful to put on your application.

In Texas although university education is still funded unlike in some states because of the Permanent University Fund (oil money) the competition to get enrolled is fierce especially to UT or A&M. It's not a question of money there are just more kids trying to get in - many HS stopped vocational training. It used to be if you were top 10% of high school class you were basically guaranteed enrollment 30 years ago. Not so much today so many kids start in lower tier schools first. Internships would certainly help there.

What about unpaid internships *during* school?

[mykepredko]

A local college has offered my company students who must complete an internship to get their degrees (in software engineering). There is no requirement for payment as this is a requirement to graduate and we were told by the college the best the students could hope for was a letter of recommendation. We are unusual in that we are paying the students and are working through a contract with the college to take on paid interns - this is in line with our B-Corp certification and general company philosophy.

So, for the majority of students from this college (and others), who have unpaid internships in order to get the piece of paper saying that they graduated from the program, what does this mean for their future salary prospects?

Completely agree

[Anonymous Coward]

Colleges rake it in. This is due to the amazing abundance of taxpayer-backed student loan money. Also, this is due to the widespread understanding that one must have a college degree in order to succeed in business and in life.

The very unfortunate net effect here is that our population is tremendously over-educated. Some degrees (like journalism, for example) churn out more graduates each year than there are job openings on the entire planet. These kids are being sold an utter fantasy and are facing lifelong debt, no realistic job prospects in their chosen field, and depression from their shattered dreams.

I imagine that once upon a time a college education really differentiated someone in the labor market, and opened the door to a higher economic class. This worked precisely because the majority of people could not afford it. Now that we have evened-out the playing field, the resultant oversupply of educated labor has made the value of such workers plummet. We respond to this problem by continuing to make it worse.

There are still some fields where one can be differentiated by true competence: any field where knowledge and education simply aren't enough to succeed; where one needs significantly above-average genetics behind their brain power in order to succeed. Education is still a necessary prerequisite, but education alone will not prepare a person to face the challenges. There, and only there, can students expect to find high paying work when they graduate.

But....most people can't do those jobs, and hate them anyway.

Re:Completely agree

[Anonymous Coward]

Colleges don't "rake it in." America's public university system used to be just that--an education system paid for by the public through taxes. 30 years ago a state university typically got 80% of their budget through the state. Today a state university is lucky to get 25% of their budget through the state. That shortfall has to come from somewhere so tuition has skyrocketed.

Re:"shock finding"?

[mikael]

In the UK, they were charging interns £1000/month to get "work experience" for six months.

Re:"shock finding"?

[BarbaraHudson]

Department of Labor Rules to determine if an intern needs to be paid.

Re:You're lying

[Rockoon]

From 80% to 25% state funded...

...while revenue increased 1120%

Now you can read all the words on the internet you want... but in math world 25% of 1120% is significantly larger than 80%

Are you too stupid to fucking know that regular people can do the math? or that regular people might even be able to figure out that State funding has increased faster than inflation?

Congratulations. You found an article with zero numbers that calls the factual 250% increase in State funding as a "cut" ... in other words... you found fake news... propaganda.. the numbers don't lie you dumb fuck

Re:Invisible Hand.

[Dutch Gun]

Clearly you have never worked a day in your life.

Well, not outside an office anyhow. I see this from slashdotters all the time. They have no practical experience outside an office, and so *vastly* overestimate the capabilities of robots and automation, largely because they don't understand industrial or light industrial work sites. There are a LOT of types of work where automation can only go so far, or in bits and pieces, and requires the dexterity and flexibility of human workers to put these products together.

My father ran a light manufacturing operation for many years, and most of his products were one-offs. His business used a lot of high-tech tools, but skilled people were still required to put it all together - certified welders included. Until a robotic welder has both the dexterity of a human AND the intellectual capacity to cope with changing projects and requirements, we're still going to need humans to do the job.