Last week Skillset, the skills and training body for the creative media industries, launched new guidelines for employers offering work experience to would-be journalists.
Central to these were recommendations on working hours and payment for graduates taking on placements after qualifying. In particular it urged that work experience placements should not exceed 160 hours, when carried out full-time over a four-week period or part-time over three months, and that employers should pay minimum wage to anyone on a graduate internship or carrying out the placement outside of further education or a training course.
Work placement schemes provide opportunities and benefits to both individuals and employers. They are a useful way for those wishing to enter the creative industries to gain an insight in to the industry and to make informed career choices. For employers, they are an opportunity to improve the skills of new entrants to the industry, raise the profile of career opportunities available within the organisation and develop management skills for existing staff. For individuals, they provide the opportunity to acquire new skills in a structured environment, and increase opportunities for future employment.
However, an over supply of people wishing to enter the industry has resulted in the representation of the creative industries as being notoriously hard to break in to and a culture of low or unpaid entry positions. Available roles often go to the few with the right connections, rather than those with the most talent and potential. Provisions should therefore be in place for promoting fair and equitable access to all entry routes, thereby opening them up to candidates from all backgrounds. Fair opportunities should exist for both people who wish to embark on a career and for those who wish to move on in their careers in the creative industries.
Trying to establish best practice within the industry is to be applauded and the above statement, based on my own experience and anecdotal evidence, is largely true. But these are guidelines, not a legal enforcement and not an attempt to regulate the industry.
In some areas of the industry unpaid placements are undoubtedly propping up newsrooms and at a time of stretched resources will employers take the lead on this?
(If you've had the opposite experience — do share below, perhaps we should be raising the profile of those who buck the trend.)
If employers don't take that lead, the situation as described above is unlikely to change and I think perhaps, with these guidelines as a starting point, we need to decide what the next step is.
