Work experience is essential throughout university, and undeniably helps set you up for a better graduate career path. However, many employers solely promote unpaid or low-paid internships, which are systematically unfair to working-class students. Whilst they are framed as a foot in the door and a chance to gain hands-on industry experience, this framing ignores the simple truth that these unpaid roles are only accessible to those who can afford not get paid. Arguably, instead of being the brilliant opportunity they are presented as, they are increasing class divisions, quietly determining who gets the chance to enter competitive industries, and favouring those from middle class backgrounds.
For those from working class backgrounds, the idea of working for free is not just inconvenient, it is often impossible. University comes with rent to pay, tuition to fund and food shops to do, which loans and part time jobs barely begin to cover. Therefore, taking on unpaid work means sacrificing time for paid roles. A social mobility charity, Sutton Trust, demonstrated through their research unpaid internships are causing demographic gaps to deepen, driven by unpaid and therefore inaccessible work, and also giving opportunities to friends and families rather than advertising them fairly. Last year, they found in a poll of 1200 graduates that whilst the number of students working as interns increased, the gap between working and middle class students accessing them widened, from 12% to 20%.
Especially within creative adjacent industries, from media and the arts, to fashion and politics, unpaid work remains commonplace. If you are someone without a financial safety net, it is simply unattainable. Roles are hyper competitive, and sometimes highly unregulated, meaning access depends on money and connections rather than ability.
Hard work is often neglected, talent frequently ignored, and these roles are essentially taking advantage of working class students and disguising it as hustle culture. Unpaid internships are not free as they cost time, travel, and the opportunity to do paid jobs, all in the name of experience. Students who must prioritise paid employment, for the sake of covering rent and living costs, but are equally motivated, capable and qualified, end up being systematically excluded from early career pipelines.
Some question how legal this work is, but due to the prestige and reputation of many of these companies and sectors, students are afraid of speaking out against unpaid arrangements. In the UK, interns categorised as ‘workers’ should be entitled to the national minimum wage, however enforcement is lacking, and there are loopholes in these regulations meaning companies can easily avoid it.
Ultimately, unpaid internships are evidence of structural inequality. Industries characterised by unpaid labour shape their future workforce as those with financial security, and this explains why so many sectors continue to be dominated by graduates from middle and upper class backgrounds. Whilst you can argue they provide networking and valuable employment skills, this should not be an exclusionary process requiring financial sacrifice.