Inspiring Interns celebrate placing their 1000th intern

With hundreds of thousands of new graduates flooding an already crowded employment market, the media is traditionally heavy with dire warnings about young jobseekers’ lack of prospects at this time of year. Fortunately, one start-up company in London is helping buck this trend. Inspiring Interns are celebrating creating 1000 graduate internships since being founded in January 2009, with over 600 of these leading to new, permanent jobs.

It is an impressive success story against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment and a suspicion among employers that hiring inexperienced workers in the current climate is too big a risk. With graduates trapped in the ‘need experience to get a job, need a job to get experience’ vicious circle, Inspiring Interns CEO and founder Ben Rosen believes that internships are the perfect model to get graduates into meaningful work.

“The employment market is currently saturated, not just with those immediately out of university but by people with over a year’s experience under their belt. Graduates are finding that they simply cannot compete in these conditions and as such remain unemployed or find menial work that does not make best use of their education.

“An internship gives them the chance to learn practical skills which will impress potential employers, as well as make useful industry contacts and even earn themselves a full-time job.”

Interestingly, Inspiring Interns have found most success in newer industries which often complement many graduates’ personal interests. Areas such as mobile technology and digital marketing offer potential for swift progression when compared to more traditional professions and also allow university leavers to draw on familiar skills, such as knowledge of social media.

Having reached the 1000 intern mark independently, Inspiring Interns are now calling on the Government to do more to support internships and help create jobs for graduates. Commenting on the recent launch of BIS’s Common Best Practice Code for High Quality Internships, Ben Rosen said,

“It is encouraging to see the Coalition engaging with internships and attempting to offer some guidance to business. However we would like to see them create some genuine measures, such as allowing companies to redirect National Insurance payments to internship programmes, in order to support what is now a proven model for combating graduate unemployment.”

Having reached the 1000 mark, Rosen is unequivocal in his vision for Inspiring Interns. “2000 is next! There are still tens of thousands of graduates looking for work and thousands of companies who are unaware of the benefit hungry young talent can bring to their organisation. Inspiring Interns is committed to bringing the two together, creating jobs and boosting business.”