INTERN NATION? How do we skill up young people to get jobs?


BIS Conference Centre,Blogs,Brian Groom,Citibank,Editorial Intelligence,Faye Wenman,FT,Gemma Lines,Jilted Generation,Laurie Penny,Martin Bright,National Apprenticeship Service,Politics,Psychology Magazine,Robin Kennedy,Shiv Malik,Simon Waugh,Talent to Work,Taylor Bennet Foundation,WEXO Tutorial — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:29 pm on May 31, 2011  

Last week I was invited to attend a breakfast and ‘opinion-former panel event’ at the BIS Conference Centre. It was titled as above – apparently a coincidental duplication of the book of the same name (which I’m now struggling to ‘get in to’) by Ross Perlin – who sadly wasn’t able to attend.

If you’re interested, you can hear the whole event podcast here or read Psychology Magazine’s well written summary of what was discussed here

It was brilliant that Editorial Intelligence brought together many other parties with an interest in answering the question of how we should skill up young people to get jobs.

But I came away feeling disheartened. The panel were certainly accomplished and the talk was well attended but any opportunity to unite opinion and take real action was missed. When given the opportunity, skilling up young people to get jobs will best be achieved by Education and Inspiration on 3 levels. Sadly, the weaknesses of this event lay partly in the title and partly in the make-up of the panel.

  1. EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE:. Simon Waugh, Executive Chairman of the National Apprenticeship Service is clearly a successful, hard working kind of guy who has probably sacrificed the pecuniary gains of executive level roles in the private sector to try and make a difference and help others in public. So no disrespect to him, but calling an event ‘Intern Nation’ and then including someone on the panel who runs an apprenticeship service only perpetuates the semantic confusion as to what an internship is – and more importantly isn’t. In case you haven’t read my rants before, here is my take on the distinction between work experience, internships and apprenticeships. Without clarification (and education), interns, ‘workies’ and apprentices will never really understand their rights and government will continue to fuel the fire with inconsistent policies:

    * Work experience: Short placements (generally 1-2 weeks) which are usually for younger people (16-18) to get a ‘taste’ of the working world and typically unpaid though we encourage companies to pay expenses.

    * Internships: 1-3 month placements, largely for undergraduates and increasingly graduates, which should be paid for legal AND moral reasons given that the company derives financial value which should be shared.

    * Apprenticeships: Apprenticeships as we see them are long term (1-2 year) paid training programmes which leave you with a vocational qualification usually in a craft or a skill. We believe they should be seen as an equal alternative to higher education. We do not believe that ‘The Apprentice’ on BBC 1 helps the classification quandry. Realistically, we would have called it ‘The Accomplice’ or more appropriately, the ‘The Attention Seeker’.

    * Jobs: What all the above should eventually result in.

  2. COMPANIES NEED TO BE EDUCATED AND INCENTIVISE:. It’s a shame that someone as influential and expressive as Laurie Penny (Journalist, author and activist )seems to see the stick as the only solution to the ill justice of unpaid internships. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you?” Along with many others, she is overtly focused on naming and shaming companies that might not know any better. It would be a real shame if such companies close their doors to young people all together for fear of falling foul of bureaucracy. As I explained to ‘Jilted Generation’ author, Shiv Malik, afterwards, WEXO would far rather we all focus on the carrot of incentivising companies to offer paid internships (via the STEP schemes, proposals for recouping costs of internships from VAT etc) rather than antagonise companies with the stick and choke the supply pipeline? We might also want to remind them that the average Return on Investment of a Graduate is 500% over 3 years.
  3. IMPROVING EDUCATION PER SE:. It’s The education system is this country IS partly to blame for not skilling people up to get jobs. This is as much the case as it was for the chair of the event, Brian Groom of the FT, failing to break up the childish confrontation between Citibank Head of Graduate Recruitment, Gemma Lines (I hope she concedes that the City owes the country a debt of gratitude and should sponsor other internships as well as inflating their own remuneration even at this level) and Laurie Penney (in fairness it was driven by the latter). The UK’s education system has got worse and this is successively shown to be the case by numeracy and literacy statistics. Moreover, higher education (especially now that it’s paid for) should give its pupils far better careers education and include vocational experience as part of some degrees.

Strangely, the 2 panel members who were least controversial, focused least on the question in hand. This said, Martin Bright , former journalist and founder of New Deal of the Mind (who we work with on BITC’s Work Inspiration campaign) and Faye Wenman, from theTaylor Bennett Foundation, were both entertaining and informative about the good work that they do in trying to create a more meritocratic and productive society. We applaud their work (and the social enterprise, Talent to Work, that this event was ultimately launching) but look to companies and organisations with the reach and resources that we do not currently have to unite the rest of us in effecting real change.

Robin Kennedy

WEXO REVIEW: Intern Nation and other stories…


Intern Aware,Intern Nation,Interns Anonymous,Kaya Burgess,Keith Richards,Michael Lewis,Robin Kennedy,Ross Perlin,The Big Short,The Times,WEXO Review — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 11:17 pm on May 17, 2011  

I’ve just started reading a new book called ‘Intern Nation‘ by Ross Perlin. Mummy bought it for me because I’m special. Actually my mother bought it for me because I imagine she’s starting to believe in what we’re trying to do at WEXO. I can’t help it that she knows where to get it or that she wanted to pay for it. And that is the issue at stake. Forgive me if I sound like a broken record (I feel like one) but there’s nothing wrong with knowing people who can get you something e.g an internship. The problem starts when other people aren’t given access to it too. The problem is compounded when a role that has a’ list of duties and work set hours’ (as per UK governmental guidance) is not paid. Legalities aside it is unethical and the biproduct is that it discriminates against other people who can’t afford to do it for free.

Despite being just 28, (as Churchill said “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative when you’re 40, you have no head.“) Perlin’s analysis is brave yet commercially aware and this guy is clearly no fool ( though he is currently writing a dictionary of a Chinese language spoken by just 6000 people). He sees value in internships, he does not want to choke the supply of them; rather he is passionate about making them work for us ALL. Here are 5 snippets that have particualarly resonated with me so far (and I’ve only just finished the preface):

1) The U.K. is apparently 5 years behind the U.S. in its use of internships but Perlin warns of what internships could become: “Until just a few decades ago, the word [internship] referred almost exclusively to a particular period of hands-on apprenticeship in the medical profession… Today…probably… between 1 and 2 million people participate in internships each year in the U.S…. ‘The rise of the internship is the market’s finding the workaround to government regulations, evidence of the tendency of liberty to grow up like grass in the cracks of sidewalks”.

2) Perhaps the worst example of how internships can be exploited: “Required by the school to take ‘a social internship’, two girls in the Netherlands, aged fourteen and fifteen, intern as prostitutes in the local red light district”

3) Who is to blame? “All of us – employers, parents schools, government agencies, and interns themselves – are complicit [albeit subconsciously] in the devauing of work, the exacerbation of social inequality, and the disillusionment of young people in the workplace that are emerging as a result of the internet boom.”

4) Hope: Perlin sees his book as “a step towards sanity and towards justice”. In a recent Guardian review, Andy Beckett lamented that things could get worse before they get better. In the Times, Kaya Burgess quoted Intern Aware and Interns Anonymous as saying there is a limit to how much they can fight the system. We do not believe that the system needs fighting. There are a multitude of well mentored, paid internships on offer to the best candidates in the UK and we like to think a lot of them are on WEXO. As ever, what we need to do is work together to make sure that there are reasons for companies to offer even more of them.

I look forward to updating you. The problem is I always seem to start books in earnest but then start others and take ages to finish them. Amongst others, I’m also currently reading ‘The Big Short‘ by Michael Lewis and Keith Richards’ autobiography. Sorry Mum, but both are infinitely more entertaining and I suspect at least one of them contains some pertinent careers advice to boot.


Robin Kennedy. Co-Founder, WEXO

Another day in the office… The PM’s office…


BIS,Blogs,Boris Johnson,David Cameron,Election,General,George Osborne,Hugh Grant,My WEXO Experience,Nick Robinson,Politics,STEP,WEXO — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 6:49 pm on April 27, 2011  

I was most appreciative to have been invited in to No. 10 today to air WEXO’s views on youth unemployment…


1) What it’s like going to No. 10?
2) What was discussed?
3) What can be acheived?

1. WHAT’S IT LIKE GOING TO NO. 10?

If truth be told, I was a little apprehensive (a fair reminder of how many of you feel, when invited in for interviews). On arrival at Westminster, I manoeuvred my way through a throng of people alongside the Cenotaph and crisply announced that I was ‘here for a meeting at No. 10′. My credentials and bags checked, I strode on down Downing Street half expecting to bump into David (PM’s Question Time and a defence of GDP growth beckoned) or at least Nick Robinson (presumably contemplating whether Obama was born in America) but calm was all around.

Not sure what the protocol was, I rang the bell alongside the door which was instantly opened by an official looking gentleman who asked me to leave my phone in one of the cubby holes (Slot ’007′ was inauspiciously unoccupied but I plumped for it). I then obligingly took a seat below a long and winding staircase which conjured up visions of an seemingly ‘home-alone’ PM/Hugh Grant dancing down it.

2. WHAT WAS DISCUSSED?

My host, an assertive yet accommodating senior policy adviser with a testing mandate (Education, Welfare and Pensions), shortly emerged and there followed a concise yet considered exchange of views which hinged on ‘supply versus demand’, budgetary pressures and the role of government. Youth unemployment it seems is shortly to be moved up the agenda and it was encouraging that players like ourselves were to be consulted in plotting its demise.

One of the key concerns seemed not to be the apparent difference of opinion between DC and NC on access to work experience (understandably – I believe the two can be aligned: sharp elbows are fine so long as everyone knows where the starting line is); rather it was the current reluctance of companies to back ‘first timers’ in lieu of ‘tried and tested’ recruits. Youth unemployment is hovering around the 1m mark. We reflected on how depressing this was when recent figures suggest that graduates (at least) offer a 500% Return On Investment (ROI) over 3 years – adding over £1Bn of value to the UK economy last year.

On the disclosure that we had previously tried to form an ‘Internships Alliance’, it was inferred that if we wanted to assemble some of the key players in this space, government advisers and representatives from BIS would be happy to invite us in to consider our suggestions. This I see as the ‘Big Society’ in action. I sensed that although the government does not see merit in state intervention, it could see value in working WITH select partners in the public and private sector to INSPIRE and INCENTIVISE (corporate) society at large to effect change (investing in an otherwise ‘lost generation’). It does not want to be seen as a ‘bully pulpit’ but it does perhaps acknowledge that it is best placed to showcase good practice and then ‘spread the word’?

Otherwise, the key issues that we touched on were:

* NETWORKING v NEPOTISM: WEXO doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong with using your network to get a job / work experience (it’s a useful skill for the working world) so long as other people are presented with the means to be considered too (and the opportunity goes to the most suitable candidate based on merit). Our technology encourages this by ranking and matching candidates to opportunities.

* SMEs: Many large companies already offer structured work experience and internship programs, but we believe the government should focus on enthusing / incentivising small and medium-sized businesses to take young people on (we have historically suggested recouping costs from VAT hike?). It is these SMEs that represent the backbone of the British economy (60% of GDP?) and which we (and other potential Internships Alliance lobby members) particularly represent. WEXO offers companies a platform to promote opportunities democratically and low maintenance cost, efficient schemes (via STEP and endorsed by Boris Johnson) to pay interns fairly.

* WORK EXPERIENCE V INTERNSHIPS: There is a clear distinction between ‘work experience’ and ‘internships‘ and this is critical in the ‘unpaid’ debate. We encourage companies to offer work experience (unpaid but preferably with expenses covered) for periods of up to 2 weeks. Thereafter (when the value generated exceeds that which is which is earned), we suggest companies offer paid internships for anything up to 3 months. For us, this is more a moral issue than a legal one (Blog here). After 3 months we suggest companies either offer people a job or let them get on with their job search. Otherwise they get stuck in the ‘internship trap’. Although WEXO is clear that work experience, apprenticeships and internships are totally different entities (based on duration, who applies, and remuneration or who derives value), the public at large might not be and so consideration needs to be given to this. Furthermore, we see the need for clarity on interns being entitled to National Minimum Wage, apprentices being entitled to £2.50 an hour and job seekers being allowed to do work experience for up to 2 months on JSA (Job Seekers Allowance).

* CAREERS ADVICE: Against a backdrop of record youth unemployment, a recent Ofsted survey suggested that one in three schools are failing to give good advice to students about future career prospects. A report by Deloitte said that 95% of young people want employers to be more involved in providing guidance about careers citing that they feel ‘bewildered’ and ‘uninformed’ by the career choices on offer. We would encourage government to back inspirational careers guidance to the like of the ‘How I Made It in…’ Events involving executives from the front line of their industries as featured on WEXO tv.

* FUNDING: As per our blog at the time, in the budget, George Osborne committed to investing in 4 times as many 8 week work experience placements as previously for 18-21 year olds. The scheme, administered by Job Centre Plus allows those doing so to collect JSA (Job Searchers Allowance). It’s a reasonably well conceived initiative but it doesn’t address the issue of finding rewarding work experience. “As George pointed out, the problem is that only 1 in 10 companies in the UK offer work experience as opposed to 1 in 4 in Germany. If George wants to see a return on his recent investment he needs to address both sides of the equation”. So funding for this and the £180m ‘Apprenticeships’ packages should address supply of opportunities as well as demand.

3) WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED?

With the above in mind, WEXO is excited about the prospect of working with the powers-that-be to help educate companies and incentivise them to recruit and invest in young people who are better informed.

* PROBABLE OUTCOME: At the very least, we feel sure that the government will honour its offer to listen to, acknowledge and where possible, address, the consensus suggestions of the key players in this space. We trust that this will not be a repeat of the unfulfilled promises of 3 years ago when we met the Panel for Fair Access to the Professions and offered to help with The Graduate Talent Pool.

* POSSIBLE OUTCOME: Even if say just SMEs (and especially ‘STEM’ [Science, Technology Engineering and Maths] companies – the future?) could recoup the costs of one 3 month internship each from VAT at National Minimum Wage (~£220 a week), it would help them show commitment to the managers of tomorrow? Instead of giving £15m worth of funding directly to the Higher Education Authorities – HEFCE (which was largely left unspent?) – we would suggest that the government ‘atones’ itself for the recent tuition fee hikes (which we actually support) and invests some of the proceeds in subsidies that public-private sector partnerships (including HEFCE) can promote to companies that are desperate to take on young people. Perhaps funding could come from the new £50m ‘Growth and Innovation Fund’? We believe that given the ROI generated by graduates any such initiative would be cost-neutral at worst.

* PREFERRED OUTCOME: WEXO was recently a member of two syndicates that spent a considerable amount of time, money and energy submitting tenders (and being shortlisted) for grants to supply work experience and Internships across London. With the funding then being clawed back from the LDA, the projects were subsequently abandoned. We acknowledge that the government would rather let the market decide who the winners are (and we are happy to operate on this basis) but what IF this government decided that it would like to back responsible corporate and social enterprises (as well as banks) and actually INVEST in the next generation through performance related, service provision grants to the like of the ones discussed above? A little could go a long way to get the motor running and generating decent GDP growth.

My thanks for the opportunity.

Robin Kennedy. Co-Founder, WEXO

PRESS COMMENT


BITC,Marks and Spencer,Nick Clegg,Political Commentary,Robin Kennedy,STEP,Stuart Rose,WEXO — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:21 am on April 5, 2011  



*** PRESS COMMENT: WEXO invites government to help make “It’s not who you know, it’s who you are” a reality ***

5th April 2011: WEXO (Work Experience Online) welcomes this morning’s news that the government is to focus on reversing the growing culture of unpaid internships as part of its social mobility scheme. The announcement that Nick Clegg will champion this initiative is encouraging. WEXO invites the government to actualise its commitment to private/public sector partnerships and work with it to tackle these issues head on.

Robin Kennedy, Co-founder and CEO of WEXO said: “In a difficult economy, internships have started to replace graduate schemes in small businesses as a ‘first job’ vehicle. For some time now, we’ve been trying to foster a meritocratic culture that democratises access to work experience and internships using the internet. I welcome today’s announcements and look forward to hearing more but this space is fraught with sensitivities. We don’t need rhetoric and policy; what we need is to educate and incentivise companies to take on the best people and pay them fairly. I’d be delighted to work with the government to this end.”

WEXO has teamed up with STEP to make it easier for companies to find the best interns. STEP has already successfully operated the London Innovation Placement Programme and its own Graduate STEP Scheme with The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS). Both schemes, which WEXO has worked with STEP on, have proved successful in providing a cost effective solution that helps companies find first class interns who in return receive an appropriate level of remuneration (which is the equivalent of at least the national minimum wage) for their hard work. One of WEXO’s recent proposals was that companies should be able to recoup the costs of paying interns from this year’s VAT increase.

In an earlier release, Sir Stuart Rose, former Chairman of Marks & Spencer and founder of BITC initiative ‘Work Inspiration’, said: “I’m a big believer in what WEXO is doing to help get students and graduates working again. By utilising the power of the internet, they are helping match talent to exciting opportunities.”

~ENDS~

Notes to editors:

WEXO (www.wexo.co.uk) is a matchmaking network exciting work experience, internships and jobs. WEXO’s technology now allows companies to rank and sort applications and it has already developed a strong client list of over 500 companies including Sony Music, Armani and Working Title as well as many start-ups, charities and SMEs. WEXO has been featured on BBC Television News and was a finalist for the 2009 LSE Recruitment Awards in the ‘Most Innovative Use of Technology’ category. More recently the company has launched ‘WEXO tv’ to help inspire and educate people about different industries. The company was founded in 2007 by ex-investment banker Robin Kennedy and London ‘fixer’ Harry Becher. The platform was built with seed funding and the company generates revenue from membership fees, search fees and advertising.

Step (www.step.org.uk) has over 10 years of experience in developing some of the UK’s most innovative and well regarded placement programmes. Quoted as a model of good practice by the Alan Milburn-chaired Panel on Fair Access, Step are working directly with the Department of Business to make these opportunities a reality.

For more information contact Robin Kennedy on info@wexo.co.uk or by calling: +44 (0) 203 287 7644


WEXO, BORIS & ALAN…


Alan Milburn,BBC,Boris Johnson,Cabinet Office,Internship,Labour Party,Political Commentary,The Careers Group,WEXO,WEXO TV — Tags: , , , — robin @ 4:19 pm on July 23, 2009  

 

 

It’s been a big week on the graduate prospects news front. On the downside, we’ve seen that unemployment has hit record highs of 2.38m (7.2%) – this in the wake of a study claiming that one in four graduate vacancies have completely disappeared (where did they go?). More encouragingly, there have been reports appearing on both public and private initiatives to address these concerns. Not least of these was WEXO’s debut on BBC Television News above! But this was closely followed by Alan Milburn announcing the long awaited Social Mobility Report and the launch of Boris Johnson’s new website Helping Graduates into Work – both on Tuesday – uncanny coincidence?!

 

Some time ago, WEXO actually went to see the ‘Panel for Fair Access to the Professions’ which compiled the social mobility report at Cabinet Office. They never thanked us for our time and haven’t credited us in the publication. We do realise though that they’ve been busy. The report is reasonably impartial in its observations and bold in its recommendations. But the very term ‘social mobility’ is starting to sound both pretentious and utopian and the ultimate blame for the report’s existence is probably the failure of Labour educational reform (even in a boom economy) to remove the seeds of immobility that start in the playground. If this is going to be any more than a footnote to the Labour party’s last stand then it’s the doors of access that need to be opened (and not just talked about). This is exactly what we are trying to do. In promoting WEXO as ‘it’s not who you know, but who you are’ we are trying to prove that some opportunities might be better filled with big brains (what you know) but many others are better populated with bolder thinking or broader approaches.

 

Bold and broad are both words that could be used to describe Boris. And the new London-focused initiative (in partnership with our friends The Careers Group) is proactive in highlighting the benefits of internships. The Mayor has stated that he will promote good practice and support it with public sector investment. We like the sound of this and have written to Boris accordingly (apparently he responds within 20 days). The website is largely a pooling of information and ideas to help graduates work out what exactly they want to do and enticingly what exactly they might get paid given a certain degree. Check it out: www.london.gov.uk/graduates