Hiring many interns, at what point does it become an exploitation?

[Feature]

I seek the opinion of all UKBF members on a good balance of employee:intern ratio.
I hope this will become a good discussion about what is a good balance and when
it becomes exploitive.

This is not an easy question to ask as there are many types of internships and many
types of interns. In this thread:

The interns are young European students from outside UK. The internship is
part of their study. They are exempt from national minimum wage because
they receive scholarship from European Commissions but assume they receive
500 GBP per month*.

The interns are required to work as any employee. The ratio shadowing:working
is around 1:7. In a 40 hour working week the intern will shadow an employee for
5 hours and spend 35 hours working, contributing to the company.

The length of the internships are between 1-6 months.
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EU students like being in the UK and want to have a great overseas reference on
their CV. UK companies can offer that in return for their cheap labour. As of now
it seems anyone could hire many of even mainly interns... but

at what ratio do you consider this starting to become an exploitation?
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what factors would change your opinion/answer?
e.g. more/less shadowing, more/less wage, free/paid accommodation etc
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Some ratio (employee:intern) examples:
10:1 - 50 employees and 5 interns in 1 company
5:1 - 20 employees and 4 interns in 1 company
1:1 - 20 employees and 20 interns in 1 company
1:5 - 4 employees and 20 interns in 1 company
1:10 - 5 employees and 50 interns in 1 company
etc etc

* This topic is focussed on the discussion on number of interns in a
company. It is not meant to focuss on whether (an how much) interns
should be paid because that is a whole different topic on its own.

 

[Billmccallum]

I don't want to sidetrack your thread, but a more important question is what is the outcome for the intern?

I firmly believe that companies who take on interns with no intention of offering anyone a job are exploiting the intern system.

Although I support internships, I think that there should be two major outcomes, the intern should learn something about managing a business (not just working a job) and someone should get a job at the end of the process.

Taking this in context with your question, the number of interns should be (very roughly) three to each job to be filled. I would probably go to four if it was a larger organisation.

I would add that I have only ever offered one internship and there was no job available at the end of it, but it was a rare case where an indian voluntary organisation sent an intern to the UK to see how we work in the sector.

 

[the king]

Feature

You're a bit late!...

BBC2 ran Richard Bilton's programme Who Gets the Best Jobs? 2 February 2011, which included internships: BBC Exposes Internships in the Industry

The Blog List also includes a link to Ross Mountneys Notebook

My notes also include (for what it's worth!) participants:

David JOHNSTON Social Marketing Foundation
Sarah PEARSE William Harvey Project
Peter SAUNDERS "on average, the middle class have more ability"
Alan MILBURN
Frances RIDOUT
Allen & Overy

State education spend == 25% of private sector

In a State of Class Limbo
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- make of what you will!