Revenge of the internship/apprenticeship

I've noticed in my job search a rather disturbing trend lately, in that there are more apprenticeships and internships. This is a good thing you might say. Normally I would agree to this, in that there are many people trapped in the no experience trap who cannot get experience without a job. Ironically they cannot get a job without experience so what to do...

The answer lay in internships and apprenticeships, you get paid travelling costs to do a job for a certain amount of time which gives you experience. This in normal times works great.... as it allows people to put a foot in the door and have some work experience in which they can show their next employer.

Unfortunately we are not in normal times I am afraid... in that an internship is either unpaid or has very little pay.

Apprenticeships on t he other hand are exempted from the national minimum wage and therefore can pay a minimum of £95 a week.

There is usually a sort of unspoken deal in professions from accountants, lawyers to metal workers in that they hire apprentices so that the apprentices learn something and gain experience from old hands in the business.

My case in point was as an accountant, I started out really low, I was taught how things worked and this training formed part of my 'pay'.

Or my mechanic friends, they would be tasked on their first days to make tea and watch, they would then be tasked menial jobs such as washing cars, cleaning the toilets making tea and sweeping and mopping the floors. Once they showed reliability they would be given basic mechanics jobs like changing oil. Over time their responsibilities would be enhanced until one day they were on an even level with that of the mechanics.


Whats the problem ? I hear you mumbling already.


The problem is apprenticeships have moved down in the chain, in that jobs which a person can be trained in within 5 minutes are being turned to apprenticeships. I'm sorry but I forgot to get screen grabs. But here are some examples:

Office junior apprenticeship:

Hold on! , what does an office junior do?, they photocopy, answer the phone, open the post and perform basic filing duties and the odd office erand. That is all, the training and learning lasts less than an hour a day if the company is particularly diligent in their training.

Cleaner apprenticeship

Back in the 1990s I had to work for a while as a cleaner, I do not believe there is any job other than sexual services that are below me, its money, I (so far) have not had to sell myself for sex (yet). In the 1990s I was handed a mop a bucket and a trolley of detergents and told I would figure it out. I did after 10 minutes. The training ended there and then I was an ok paid cleaner after day 1, the learning ceased there and the.


The problem is these are now turned into long term apprenticeships which pay £95 a week for 40 or so hours, how can employers do this? . On a NMW job a person on 40 hours a week will be paid £232 gross, and yet employers are being nasty enough and that isn't too strong a word to cut the pay of their lowest paid staff by £137 a week.

Insanity, pure insanity...



As a boot note I am too old to go on an apprenticeship.