Would you like an unpaid internship? This company charges you £3000 for a chance to find one
Or £5000 if you need accommodation as well
Harry ShukmanJob-hungry grads are being fleeced for almost £3000 to get places on unpaid internships at hotshot London companies.
Recruitment agency City Internships arranges two-month placements at top offices in the capital for a staggering £2750, or £5150 with accommodation included.
Hundreds of students and recent grads flock to the agency seeking an unpaid internship costing thousands of pounds, hoping it will eventually lead to a high-flying job.
Well-heeled applicants pay for eight weeks of interning and what the company call “weekly career seminars, skills workshops and networking events” as well as “excursions, socials & charity events”.
A programme testimonial from a Stirling grad reads: “This summer has been fantastic and I am still reaping the rewards of the program by being kept on by my internship company.
“I have made friends for life — both fellow interns and work colleagues.”
Charlie Mullen, 23, said she blew her £2500 savings to City Internships after failing to find work in the publishing industry — and since won a job at an asset intelligence firm.
She told the Sunday Times: “I saw it as a necessary evil.
“It’s helped me a great deal. But I can definitely see it’s an unfair advantage.”
Fair internship campaigner Chris Hares added 74 per cent of people said they or someone from a family like theirs could not afford an unpaid internship in London, let alone pay for one.
He said: “Charging young people eye-watering sums of money to work is regressive and exploitative, and responsible employers should have nothing to do with them.”
City Internships founder Lewis Talbot explained his company model was common in the US where job hopefuls can be charged up to the equivalent of £6500 for internships.
He added his firm’s profit margin was small but more interns are applying for work.
The 31-year-old former City worker expects 400 paying students and grads to undertake internships this year as well as 200 in New York and Los Angeles.