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The Daily Telegraph has reported that graduates are paying up to £8,000 to take up places on internships, some of which are even unpaid.

The newspaper says that ‘middle-class students’ are resorting to such tactics to put themselves one step ahead of their contemporaries in the current challenging graduate job market.

It is thought that the number of students forking out for palcements each year could be in the ‘high hundreds’. The National Union of Students has labelled the practice as “obscene” and said it is like students are “paying for their own exploitation”.

The director of the National Council for Work Experience, Heather Collier, described students handing over money to find internships as a worrying development which she said, “threatened to give middle-class students a major advantage.”

It has also emerged that some companies are cutting back on staff to offer interns a place in the company instead. Alex Try, one of the founders of the popular blog Interns Anonymous, said that they have heard about a commercial art gallery in London who laid off the lower tiers of employees and handed over their responsibilities to interns.

The director of the careers service at Oxford University, Jonathan Black, admitted that he is often asked by firms in the City and media businesses - amongst others - to act as a broker by selling services to students. Black said: “I think companies charging for internships are exploitative of a vulnerable group of people, they are preying on students’ uncertainty.” He went on to stress that students must realise that it is in no way necessary to take the paying route as all careers services know that internships are available for free and you should be able to find yourself a place on one if you are willing to do a bit of work yourself.”

If you are interested in internship work (and are willing to do a bit of work yourself – with some help from us) then check out the internships and placements section of the E4S website. You’ll find dozens of current opportunities and a useful reference section featuring a directory of companies that offer internships.