on travel and very very little food or sleep , I was asked for my bank details so that my wage could be credited to me . I left the venue on Sunday feeling like it was an experience I hadn ’ t learned tonnes from , but it was good enough and I ’ d learned to really push myself when working for a wage . Little did I know the company that hired me were to ( the next day ) disappear off the face of the earth and in fact never pay me . Aaaah ! work experience can be a charm .... I think the real issue here lies with post graduates . When you ’ re young it ’ s all about learning so work experience is more than necessary but when someone has graduated from university , I see it as their time to be a professional , they ’ ve paid their dues and should now be entitled to start earning . It still shocks me ( even though it is such a common occurrence ) when I hear of graduates that are working for free or worse , are unemployed .
25 year old Ollie From London studied Law and graduated from Kingston with a 1:1 degree . He said : “ I graduated nearly 3 years ago , after 2 years of being unemployed and my parents funding me I gave in and now I work in catering . The last thing I imagined myself doing 3 years ago ”. 29 year old Katie from Brighton says , “ I studied fashion design and dress making at the London College Of Fashion and now I have my dream job as a dressmaker at Christopher Kane but I spent my first 2 and half years , post graduation interning at some of the smallest and most unpleasant fashion companies you could find . Experience is key . However , I feel for the students of the current years , they have it a lot worse than me , I did this 10 years ago and it was a struggle even then ”.
University is sold to us now as something that will set us apart and in the long run , make us the successful earners that everyone hopes to be . But surely if we ’ re going to pay £ 30,000 + for an education , having to work for free at the end of it completely defeats the idea of paying in the first place ? And by the time the majority finish university and complete a years free work they ’ re gracing their mid 20 ’ s , an employer at this time can then potentially devalue your experience and the quality of your training if you ’ re 24 and still working for free , shouldn ’ t we come across to our future employers as desirable not disposable ?
Alternatively , even if we eliminate our own opinions and focus on the political matter at hand , we still have a case of things unfair going on . Her Majesty ’ s Revenue and Customs ( HMRC ) are investigating
JUICEBOX
“ I graduated nearly 3 years ago , after 2 years of being unemployed and my parents funding me I gave in and now I work in catering .”
interns across the employment spectrum and monitoring the accusation that they are being abused with ignorance to the national minimum wage ( NMW ) laws . The investigation team from HMRC are said to be focusing on the fashion industry for the first 6 month period as it has been named and shamed as the industry most known for intern abuse . ‘ If you are in that industry and you have interns , there ’ s no reason to think that we won ’ t be knocking on your door ’, stated HMRC . Hundreds of household names from all industries ( not just fashion ) are being investigated since the campaign group ‘ Intern Aware ’ brought to light that the responsibilities left with some interns , do in fact amount to an actual job role in which case they should be earning at least minimum wage . A spokesperson from Intern Aware says of the scheme ‘ We set it up at university because we were angry at seeing friends of ours , who were bright and hardworking , being pushed out of professions because they couldn ’ t afford to work for free . It ’ s not just that they ’ re wrong , but lots of these companies are breaking the law .’ Hopefully these investigations will slim down the amount of unpaid youngsters and maybe even convince employers to just take a chance every now and again and hire an employee through the form of traditional CV and interview stages .
Although I do not condone unpaid labour in anyway , I am certainly not anti it , it ’ s one of those things that you have to accept . You can either learn to work your way up with determination or try to fight it and stay where you are . Throughout all of the positives and negatives it ’ s obvious that the one thing you will always learn from work experience or internships of any kind is the ability to understand the pace of working in the real world and to me that is invaluable . I ’ ve learnt first hand that even bad experiences are ones that you can learn from .
For those of you that are struggling to fund your studies or are working in jobs that are purely to pay the bills , there is always help available to you . Visit some of the following websites if you need help in any area of work , no matter how big or small your issue .. talking helps !
www . co-health . co . uk / student _ helpline www . retailtrust . org . uk / www . acas . org . uk /? articleid = 141
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