The folks at In Birmingham have picked up on Andy Burnham MP‘s comments about social mobility and the issues around unpaid internships. Andy Burnham used the BBC to make his point, saying:
‘There are young people working within the BBC for long periods without pay’, he said. ‘This is not fair to them, but more importantly it excludes many others who simply don’t have the means to support themselves’
While someone from In Birmingham has applied the same to this city’s cultural industries, using un/low paid opportunities at Punch Records and VIVID as examples.
Here’s the article – Exploitation in the Cultural Sector: unpaid internships in Birmingham’s cultural industries. Go comment if you’ve got an opinion either way.
I’d like to see Burnham’s evidence for this. The BBC has a policy of only offering unpaid work experience for a maximum of two weeks.