It’s about time young people developed a backbone and asked for pay

The National Union of Students (NUS) has joined with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to launch a year-long campaign on fair pay for interns.

It is stepping up the pressure on MPs, university careers services and employers by urging students to put up posters around university campuses and get their student unions involved in the quest to stamp out unpaid internships.

The way the NUS sees it, unpaid interns are the victims of organisations – from blue chip companies to charities like Oxfam and Comic Relief – who want to exploit them for cheap labour.

While this might be true, we’re all at risk of exploitation if we don’t question anything. What do you say to a taxi driver who tries to charge you over the odds? Or the shop that sold you faulty shoes? You say no, and ask for your money back. Welcome to the real world.

University is supposed to be a period of enlightenment. A time where young people learn to ask questions and challenge the status quo. So why are universities churning out graduates who don’t seem able to stand up for themselves?

What the NUS should be doing is empowering interns to stand on their own two feet, cut out the middle man and ask the company fat cats directly for what they want. Campaigns like theirs aren’t doing graduates any favours – they are actually infantilising them.

According to research from the graduate career website Prospects, self reliance and ambition are two of the qualities employers look for in graduates. So when a young hopeful applies for an internship, bustles in and exclaims with a smile – “will work for caffeine and contacts!” they’ve already sold themselves short. Relying on the bank of mum and dad to fund their placement and making do with coffee granules instead of a wage isn’t exactly go-getting, is it?

Imagine if employers were suddenly faced with ballsy young people who were educated, hardworking and had the tenacity to negotiate themselves a fair wage? Surely these are the kind of people they want to employ. A waged person – intern or otherwise – is far more likely to give a company 110% and be valued in return.

It’s about time young people developed a backbone.

Try this interns – negotiation. If you sit in an interview for an internship and have impressed the boss enough for them to employ you then you have every right to negotiate a fair wage. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

An ex boss of mine looked pretty surprised when after two weeks work experience I asked for a fee to come back for a month-long internship – but he agreed. It’s up to young people to determine when the line is crossed between experience – a useful learning opportunity – into doing work that staff could and should be paid to do otherwise, and ask to be rewarded for their contribution.

If we don’t encourage graduates to stand up and be counted – from the moment they leave university – how are they supposed to develop the skills to ask for a pay rise, negotiate house prices or sell themselves in an interview for a job with a proper salary?

Internships campaigns are brilliant for raising awareness, but on their own are as effective as someone’s mum ringing their boss up and giving them a good telling off. So I’m not calling upon the unions, the government or mum and dad to fight my corner. I’m calling upon you, the class of 2012 and beyond to fight for what you are worth. Grow up, and say no.

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