What about interns?

Unlike apprenticeships, which are structured and audited schemes with a qualification awarded at completion (see the Government website for more information on apprenticeships), internships are not legally defined roles.

While internships provide valuable experience for young people starting out in their careers, recent research by the Sutton Trust illustrated the damaging social impact of unpaid internships and emphasized that many of these internships are in fact illegal.

As best practice, we generally promote that interns are paid the real Living Wage, and payment of the Living Wage is expected if the intern is legally classed as a worker or employee. This includes employees or workers on student industry placements. For more details on the classification of interns, please see the Government guidelines on interns and the minimum wage. We encourage you to get in touch with us if you have questions, as we recognise this can be a complex area to work through.