Internships and widening participation

I've had many discussions over the last couple of weeks on the topic of 'internships' and 'work experience'. Don't get me wrong I've done an internship and I had an amazing experience and I gained tremendous skills for life. However, more and more internships in this country are unpaid (expenses are normally covered) even if they go on for months. I' have a problem with this.

In many professions it is now seen as 'normal' that in order to progress on to good jobs it is necessary that applicants have gained experience through often unpaid internships. Simply being a university graduate will not make you stand out and that is why volunteering and society involvment have become such important parts of university life. However, while universities are trying to embrace an agenda of increasing access to higher education and widening participation these efforts are undermined by the proliferation of unpaid internships. Many students will not have the money (or the connections) which is needed to embark on an internship which means working for 3 months without getting paid.

This is a hastily written blog but I think this is an issue that we as student unions need to look in to if we take meaningful widening participation seriously! The Arts Group have flagged up this issue and I hope many other groups will follow (We have had discussions about this in the Aldwych Group already)!

What do you think? Is this an issue we should look in to? Check out this recent blogpost from the Arts Group and tell me what you think!