Teenagers face discrimination and exploitation in the working sphere.
Wow, someone has actually spray painted this. Maybe my inner rebel?
I find that students have access only to jobs which are seen as being at the lower level whereas the more challenging are out of their reach, not because they demand skills beyond students but are simply seen as ‘too good for them.’ By this I mean how many jobs are flogged off as unpaid internships with the most absurd being labelled part-time internships for students. This is a ridiculous concept because it allows companies to employ people for free when they should be paying them. For what reason are they not being paid? Internships are acceptable if the employee is being trained at the same time so has a reduced output compared to other workers. However, many internships adopt the label purely because they want to reduce their own costs by hiring free labour. Yet they are not regulated because rather than being seen as doing something immoral, they are celebrated as aiding students and recent graduates by developing their ‘experience.’ This does not mean internships are all bad but the ones who pose as internships while merely being unpaid work are sly, exploitative and just despicable.
Yes an internship! Oh wait, they aren’t going to pay me..
What can be done about this? Well this problem is rife in the UK and the USA as I recently learnt so the governments of each country really do need to enforce strict punishments for companies who are trying to gain free labour. The UK government website describes how employees can complain if they feel they are being exploited, it would be interesting to know how many are actually reported and investigated. Companies need to realise that they simply cannot get away with paying people nothing but at the moment they feel they can as no one is really doing anything to stop them. Some advertised vacancies simply make me laugh, a social media internship for students listed as unpaid when it is likely that the students would be the ones teaching the company about how to use social media effectively.
So dear companies, stop being a selfish, greedy and stingy bunch, pay us.
Well said! I have an unpaid internship at a newspaper and this pretty much sums it up.
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Thank you 🙂
How is the internship going though apart from it being unpaid? I did a couple weeks at a newspaper and it was quite enjoyable.
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It’s gone quite well although my mentor is really unresponsive.
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Which desks have you worked on?
That’s annoying, although they do tend to leave you without tasks for a while as they are often so busy themselves which can get quite dull.
The most exciting times are when you get a by-line in the paper!
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I know what you mean, I’ve got a couple of by-lines in and it feels great! Most of the stories I covered were about the city, some for health and a few for arts and theatre.
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That’s great! How long is your internship for? A great moment for me was when we went to Chelsea FC’s training ground for Jose’s press conference!
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It’s for a month and my last day is this Saturday.
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Wow a month is quite a nice length of time but yes it would have been much nicer if they had payed you something!
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Yeah I think I spent more money on commuting and covering stories than what I spend at college!
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Yes commuting is expensive! I think I spent around £30 a week on travel.
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