MDX Intern Aware campaign hits new heights
Last week, a delegation of Middlesex Media students visited four other London universities to campaign for fair internships and build support for the Intern Aware charter across the student community.
The project was a big success, with hundreds of students signing the charter. We asked Charles George (second from left), a Middlesex Creative Writing student in his second year, about the campaign he is helping to run. He told us about how he got involved, and what the next steps for the group will be...
1. Tell us a bit about the Intern Aware campaign. What’s the goal?
Intern Aware is a not-for-profit organisation that works tirelessly to try and make sure that internships are fair and equal to everyone.
One of the major ways to do this is to provide interns with a basic wage, otherwise internships are only there for those who can afford to work for free. The goal is to get as many signatures for the charter so that we can send it over to Vince Cable [the Business Minister] and he can use it to help change the law surrounding internships.
2. You had some big campaign success between February 25th-28th - what happened?
We rolled out the campaign to London Met, Goldsmiths, UEL and Kings College over a one week time period. Hundreds of students signed; combined with the signatures from Middlesex students, we now have 3500 signatures for the charter - more than enough to show how much people really care about fair internships!
2. How did you get involved with the project?
Last year I was involved with a New Economics Foundation campaign run by Media and Politics lecturer Ben Little; at the end of the year I asked Ben if I could be a part of any of the campaigns he ran this year, so he got me involved by helping me become a Student Learning Assistant for the class that ran the Internaware campaign.
3. Have you encountered unpaid internships yourself? What are the problems you’ve discovered?
I personally haven't, but I have applied for a lot of paid internships and they are very hard to get into.
I couldn't afford to even think about going into an unpaid internship - I'd have to resort to having a part-time job which would take up all my time outside of the internship, or take out loans which are even worse long-term.
4. What’s been a campaign highlight for you so far?
You can get some really good discussions going with people; even if they don't agree that internships should be paid it's always refreshing to hear something new. Mostly I think seeing how much the class got into the campaign was pretty awesome - they really seemed to throw themselves in and enjoy it.
5. What’s next?
Next we are inundating Vince Cable with the letters and petitions so that he can really see how this issue is anything but minor to the students and staff!
6. How can other students get involved?
Go to www.internaware.org.uk to sign their petition, which is on the website front page.
If you're reading this and want to support fair internships, do click through and sign. It not only helps your possible recruitment chances, but also the chances of students that come after you too.
