Transcript - Leeds Beckett Repository

Internships for all?
A critical review of unpaid labour and
questions for marketing, advertising and public
relations students in the UK: A working paper
BSA Work, Employment and Society Conference, 2016
Liz Yeomans, Ioannis Kostopoulos and Sallyann Halliday,
Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
Introduction
 An internship, or period of work experience, is widely acknowledged as a way into
employment (BIS, 2012). Employers favour those students and graduates who have
gained work experience to those who have not (Gault, Leach and Duey, 2010).
 However, while an internship is normatively understood as a way into desired careers in
marketing, advertising and public relations, the question of unpaid internships – ‘free
labour’; also titled ‘provisional’, ‘precarious’ and ‘ambiguous’ labour - is insufficiently
problematised in much of the literature in these fields, even though the ‘challenges’ for
universities in implementing internship programmes is well documented (Divine et al 2007).
 What is missing is a critical, comprehensive understanding of the experiences, aspirations
and motivations of students on marketing, advertising and public relations courses in
relation to their social and cultural contexts and the graduate labour market.
Marketing, advertising and PR degrees
and internships
 Within the UK, approximately 500,000 employed in the marketing, advertising and public
relations professional fields (Office for National Statistics, 2015).
 Part of the cultural industries (Hesmondhalgh, 2013), practitioners within these three fields
operate as ‘promotional intermediaries’, working on behalf of commercial interests to sell
not only commodities but to shape ‘values, norms and beliefs about society, markets and
human relations’ (Davis, 2013, p. 29).
 Most universities now offer generic Marketing, Advertising or Public Relations courses,
combined degrees, or specialised degrees (e.g. Fashion Marketing; Sports Marketing) to
cover the demand from employers (Unistats, 2016).
 Internships considered as crucial parts of undergraduate and postgraduate courses
curricula because of the requirement to develop, practical, job related skills in order to
become business professionals (Li, Greenberg and Nicholls, 2007).
Professional associations diversity policies
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Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)
Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR
Public Relations and Communication Association (PRCA)
 Only CIPR and PRCA have developed policies on fair wages for interns.
 http://www.prca.org.uk/campaigns/better-internships/pr-andcommunications-employers-pay-their-interns
 https://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/toolkits-and-bestpractice-guides/internship-and-work-placement-toolkit
The social capital debate
 Social capital theory (Bourdieu) is often used as a rationale for unpaid work for
those students from underprivileged backgrounds who lack social capital. Social
capital acquired through the contacts made on an internship can be used as a
resource to enhance their CV.
 Siebert and Wilson (2013) argue that there is little evidence to support this claim.
Furthermore, those who cannot afford to work for free are excluded from
opportunities to acquire the social capital they need to become successful in
their discipline (Hesmondhalgh, 2010; Siebert and Wilson, 2013; Percival and
Hesmondhalgh, 2014).
UK policy context
 Internships and fair wages
 Wilson Review (BIS, 2012) - an undergraduate internship arranged through the University
and integrated within the degree programme is recognised as a valuable asset in future
employability. Indeed they are now being identified explicitly in the employability ‘offer’ of
Universities (Wilson, 2012, p.39)
 Employment rights and pay for interns (HMRC, 2015)*
 Competitive graduate recruitment market – increased competition for jobs
 The market is shrinking according to Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) – shrunk by
8% in 2016 due to Brexit and shift of government focus towards apprenticeships and the
employer levy for these
 Over-supply of graduates for the number of jobs available – employers recruiting those who
have proven their abilities during a work placement since this is considered a more ‘reliable’
way of employing graduates (High Fliers Research, 2016)
Universities internship programmes
 Formal internship and ‘industrial placement’ schemes exist, varying
between 3 months and 1 year.
 University approved schemes - characterised by a gap between
employers’ expectations and those of the students (Beggs, Ross
and Goodwin, 2008; Daugherty, 2011); poor organisation within
universities (Perry and Borg-Myatt, 2007); and lack of fairness in the
way interns are treated by colleagues and supervisors (Alpert,
Heaney and Kuhn, 2009).
Employing organisations
 The creative/cultural industries represent the more ‘glamorous’ sectors – i.e.
fashion, music, offering a career with the possibility of combining work and play
(Hesmondhalgh, 2010).
 Unpaid internships – reported to be widespread in these industries.
 While individual organisations may profess diversity policies and access on merit,
in actuality, the required social and cultural capitals (e.g. ‘polish’) may limit who
has access (Stuber, 2009; Ashley and Empson, 2016).
 Young workers in the creative industries accept that ‘as individuals’ they will have
to do what it takes to open up the opportunities they want (Siebert and Wilson,
2013; Shade and Jacobson, 2015).
Student as ‘individualised’ and
‘aspirational labourer’?
 The key motivation for undertaking unpaid work is often the promise of paid employment –
increasingly the case that graduates without work experience ‘won’t find a job’ (Siebert
and Wilson, 2013: 711-712).
 BUT for students of marketing, advertising and public relations, it is not just ‘any job’ but a
career that they aspire to in their chosen field. Often gendered, class based, and
relational.
 Duffy (2016) coins the term ‘aspirational labourer’ to denote situations where the job is
perceived as a ‘status object’ or ‘symbolic benefit’ – overcoming issues of low or no pay.
Links to notion of ‘self-exploitation’ (Hesmondhalgh, 2010; Frenette, 2013; Mears, 2015).
 Neoliberal worker – requirement for ‘self-commodification’ and ‘individualised labour’
(Hesmondhalgh, 2010); and an attitude of ‘internalised flexibility’ means that the status
quo is not challenged (Bradley and Devadason, 2008).
Questions for marketing, advertising and
PR students in the UK
 Drawing on the wealth of literature within the sociology of work and the creative/cultural
industries, from the UK, Canada and the US, much of it based on insightful qualitative
studies, we can begin to pose questions for further empirical investigation through a
comprehensive study of marketing, advertising and PR students across the UK – as a first
step in the research process.
 Following Siebert and Wilson (2013) we must therefore seek to understand students’ logics
in negotiating career paths, and include the perspectives of those unable to access
internships, as well as current workers who could be negatively impacted on by the
unpaid intern’s presence in the workplace.