Unpaid work placements have increased during the recession. But who really benefits: employers or workers?
GRADUATE WORK placements are on the increase. Often advertised as an invaluable first step into a career, they allow graduates to gain hands-on experience and to network within their chosen industry. For many young people, this means volunteering their labour for months on end in the hope of eventually securing a paid position.
Work placements have long been common practice in the media and non-profit sectors, but the recession has led to many more sectors creating often unpaid positions for graduate placement schemes.
One postgraduate of a journalism programme from Dublin Institute of Technology says that she sees no opportunity for paid work, despite having worked for broadcasters and print publications since last July.
“Initially I would have thought work experience would have been a way to get your foot in the door, but now that I’m in it I don’t think so any more. From my personal experience, I’m there knowing four or five people will have done the placement before me, and I know when my month is over they’ve someone else to fill that spot,” she says.
“Also, if I go to an employer who wants to employ me and they see I’ve been working for free all this time, it gives them an opportunity to take advantage and offer you a lower rate. A lot of companies take this as a chance to take advantage, and they almost think they’re doing you a favour.
“I do understand that you need to get experience to start with, but I think there comes a point where you should get paid because you’re doing the same work as everyone else and have a proven track record,” she says.
With a maxed-out bank overdraft, she feels lucky to have parents who can financially support her, making it possible for her to work for free for more than half a year, but she has “gone as far as I can go. Soon I will have to take any job that pays money.”
Some 2,000 positions are offered under the Fás Work Placement Programme, half of which are exclusively for graduates and range from receptionist to software developer. However, an increasing number of non-graduates are also applying for such positions while they are unable to find work. Most placements are found in administration, followed by sales and marketing and IT.
The Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) launched a new work placement scheme last October, following a survey of 127 companies who expressed an interest in offering 300 placements.
Asked whether employers were using placements as an opportunity to fill positions that would otherwise have to be paid, Ibec’s policy executive Alan O’Kelly says: “A lot of companies wouldn’t use it as that. I would say most companies would view it as a way of giving graduates a chance to gain experience, while there is also a benefit to the programme for companies.”
The programmes offer up to nine months’ full-time placement, most of which are unpaid. However, with some placements, employees can still receive social welfare payments.
Fás did not respond directly when asked if the Work Placement Programme would provide State-subsidised jobs to businesses. According to a spokesperson, “for those who have been unable to find paid work, it is an opportunity for them to gain experience, to apply their knowledge and to network in the workplace – and perhaps to find a paid job through the placement”.
Although employers do not have to provide any formal training, Ibec’s and Fás’s schemes are controlled to a degree, as employers have to certify that they did not replace a paid position with a work-placement position.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has identified the growing trend of unpaid placements as having the potential for labour exploitation.
“Unpaid work has grown in recent years and the recession risks making it an even more attractive proposition for employers. Often it is employers in the most ‘glamorous’ careers who are the worst abusers of internship schemes,” says Esther Lynch from Ictu.
The online network for Irish non-profit organisations, Activelink.ie, posts up to 20 voluntary positions each week, including internships. In many cases the internships state that those who can commit full-time unremunerated will be prioritised, according to Activelink’s website administrator, Jennifer McGinn.
A postgraduate in development studies from University College Dublin has been working in an unrelated administrative role since August in order to save up for an internship. Originally from Co Cork, she lives away from home and expects that she will have to work unpaid for up to a year before she can apply to paid positions.
“Because of the sector I want to work in, which is non-profit, I think unpaid internships to gain experience are justified, but I think there should be more part-time ones. It’s very high demand to work for free full-time over several months when you can’t make any money,” she says.
“I also think they are biased towards people who have money in the first place.
“Most people, when they leave university, don’t just have no money, but are in debt,” she says.
More unpaid positions can be found on the online forum Talent Tank, which specialises in putting businesses in touch with people seeking and offering free work.
The site has seen an “incredible uptake” since its launch in April 2009, with 1,000 people and businesses registered, according to co-founder Tom Hayes.
He says that 20 per cent of members are graduates wishing to showcase their work, network and upgrade their CV. “What happens in a huge economic downturn, as Ireland has seen, is that small businesses freeze. If they see that everyone on Talent Tank will work for free, they don’t feel so threatened by it.”
