Companies that favour unpaid interns when they recruit staff are missing out on talent from poorer backgrounds.
That is the warning from a government-backed report, Graduate Recruitment: the HEAR and Now, written by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) and Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), which found that social mobility is being harmed by some companies' restrictive recruitment practices.
The report, which was funded by the government's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, recommends a number of measures to ensure those from poorer backgrounds have an equal chance of getting well-paid work, including:
- employers should review their recruitment methods to ensure common barriers, such as favouring unpaid interns, are removed, and to use the HEAR report to identify wider strengths in candidates;
- universities should deliver careers planning to students earlier and arrange work experience for all; and
- the government should work with universities and small businesses to promote job opportunities and the HEAR ideas, and ask employers to sign up to social mobility aims.
The report found that many companies were acting against social mobility by providing unpaid internships which only those from privileged backgrounds could afford to take up.
This system was shown at its lowest point when Westminster School, which charges up to £31,350 per year, auctioned off a number of internships in high-profile companies, including Coutts private bank and Faberge, to parents of its pupils.
MPs wrote to companies involved to suggest they withdraw from the auction.
David Willetts, the Universities Minister, has warned businesses against “fishing in an unduly narrow pool” of talent, which can discriminate against students who attend less prestigious universities.
Backing the latest report, he said: “We want to make the most of the great wealth of graduate talent we have in the UK.”