Internship game heats up as competition for graduate jobs rises

Last week I published a report written by High-flyers a leading graduate recruitment researcher. Some of the key highlights from the report suggests that more and more graduate jobs are filed by students that have already worked within than company before on a placement or summer Internships. 32% in fact, that's around 5,500 vacancies according to high-flyers will be filled by graduates who have already worked for that organisation. As graduate job applications intensifies, people are looking for new ways to find employment within businesses and Internships go some way to achieving this.

Internships is a practical work or training experience that allows students to build upon theoretical bases that they have learnt at school, college or university. Much criticism has been made as to whether Interns programmes are both beneficial to the organisation and also the employees. With many interns often being treated like part of the furniture and not actually gaining any real life experience at all. A even bigger issue is the issue of pay, as interns are there to gain an experience this often the reward, rather than a financial incentive. I would like to point out that this is wrong and any person who is a intern should be paid at least minimum wage. Internocracy a leading campaigner for fairer Internships suggests that only 10% of under 35's actually know that unpaid Internships actually break the law.

From my eye's Internships are perceived to be a grey area, on the one hand students are keen to gain experience to build on the theoretical understanding on the other they can't all work for free. Furthermore students importantly need the experience to further their career progression, with graduates job being even more difficult to come by, Internships are probably seen as the first stepping stone into these companies

How do I go about getting an Internship then?

• Enternships - People often say that you get more of a buzz out of working for smaller organisations, Enternships offers Internships from a range of small to medium sized enterprises.
• WEXO - Work Experience On-line - a community portal offering access to a range of Internships opportunities within small, medium and large corporations. Downside to WEXO is you have to pay, but on the positive side most of the Internships on this site are advertised as paid, so if you are successful it will be quick to recoup your original investment.

Whilst these sites may improve your chances of attaining a Internships and career progression, in reality we live in a society where it is not what you know, but who you know. It is crucial that you know your rights when accepting an Internships, if they can't afford to pay you then at best you should be seeking expenses.