Internships in London

This chapter explores the growing use of internships as a route into certain careers and professions. Internships, particularly unpaid, burgeoned during the years of the recession, becoming a widespread strategy deployed both by organisations to enhance their workforces and young people keen to enhance their CVs with work experience at a time when paid jobs were in short supply. Drawing on case study research conducted in one of the ‘Big Four’ accountancy practices, as well as with young people on less prestigious internships, the chapter argues that internships are a highly exclusive entry route scheme, powerfully structured by social class. They vary considerably in terms of quality, and it is, in the main, those young people with family resources who are able to access and benefit from the most supportive and best rewarded internships in terms of pay, good quality training and employment outcomes.