A charity set up by the so-called 'posh bible' Debrett's has warned of a huge disparity between the chances on offer to people at different ends of the social spectrum in an age where nepotism matters more than ever.
In a report on work placements, the Debrett's Foundation said privileged youngsters got the best placements and 72 per cent of privileged young Britons said they had used family connections to secure their dream internship.
Its report today claims that 25 per cent of all young people think the system for getting work experience placements and internships in Britain is not fair.
The Debrett's Foundation was set up last year by the prestigious Mayfair-based business to promote social mobility, amid concerns about the high proportion of millionaires and former public school boys in Government. Its report is based on research with more than 3,000 young people aged 16 to 25 - plus a further 2,000 people aged over 30.
The Foundation said that "somewhat depressingly" young people rate factors including a double-barrelled surname, the school you went to and an acceptable accent as extremely important factors in landing work placements and internships.
Researchers looked at how many young people secured work placements in London and found that only 15 per cent of state school children did, while the figure was 32 per cent for their private school counterparts. Many from less privileged backgrounds did not even apply for placements in London due to living and travel costs.
The report lays bare the extent to which internships are now an essential part of the path into employment.
The Foundation says that in stark contrast to previous generations, who on average only had to do one work experience placement before landing their first 'proper' job, today's graduates have to go through the process seven times. One in 10 young people confessed to having completed 15 placements before signing on the dotted line for a job they wanted.
Joanne Milner, CEO at Debrett's, said: "With young people having to complete seven work experience placements before landing the job they want, it's safe to say that Intern Britain is here to stay. Securing the right work experience placement is difficult, considerably more so if you don't have the right connections.
"Nepotism isn't any more widespread than it was in the past, but it has a greater impact today. There are so many candidates for the top graduate jobs - it follows that those with the best experience have a better chance of securing them."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article