As announced in an article featured on The Guardian recently, the UK’s number one graduate recruitment website, Milkround, are banning the advertisement of all unpaid internships across their website.
Working alongside careers blog Graduate Fog, Milkround has united with other recruitment industry leaders including Monster, Total Jobs, Prospects, Target Jobs and Guardian Jobs, to stop the promotion of any roles that do not meet national UK minimum wage legislation. The aim of the campaign is to support students in their struggle to find full-time employment after university, ensuring that they are being properly reimbursed for the use of their skills and expertise. The job boards involved are also backing the introduction of legislation that would make the promotion of unpaid internships illegal, as well as the roles themselves.
Jenni Joplin, General Manager of Milkround has provided a full statement on the decision to ban the ads, and has also commented: “We are proud to be joining forces with our industry peers in banning the advertisement of unpaid internships. We always strive to support students and graduates in the pursuit of their future careers, and strongly feel that gaining real work experience with real pay should be the accepted norm. No student or graduate should feel excluded from an opportunity because they cannot afford to support themselves. Only advertising internships that meet at least the national minimum wage will level the playing field, offering equal opportunities to candidates from all backgrounds.”
Tanya de Grunwald, founder of Graduate Fog says: “It is great news that the UK's biggest job boards have listened and responded to pressure from young jobseekers. By banning adverts for illegal unpaid internships from their websites, they are effectively saying to exploitative employers 'We don't want your money', shaming the shrinking number of organisations who think it's okay to take young workers' labour without paying them a wage for it. It is also encouraging to see that the majority of the big UK job boards – including Milkround – would back the introduction of legislation making it illegal to advertise unpaid internships. It shows that the industry is keen to do the right thing, and ensure that all legitimate job boards abide by the same rules so that they only promote high quality opportunities to their users.”
Dan Robertson, Diversity & Inclusion Director at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion stated: “There is a clear difference between work experience which is short term and longer term internships. Many enei Members believe unpaid internships widen the growing gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged and as such, they offer ‘Earn and Learn’ Internships which recognise the need for young people to be able to pay their way in society. The practice of asking young people, often with a mountain of debt following years of study, to work without pay is morally questionable. By banning the advertisement of all unpaid internships across their website Milkround are sending a powerful message to UK businesses; it is a message that many enei Members wholly support”.
