Closed petition Define internships in employment legislation and ensure that internships are paid the National Minimum Wage.

Closed on 13 February 2014

There is a confusion over what constitutes a volunteer, apprentice and intern. Volunteers are perceived as people who offer up their free time to carry out certain activities for organisations. An apprentice is someone seen as on voluntary professional work training or placement where their experience helps them to get longer term work employment. An intern is someone who could be doing either or both of these remits but also offers the opportunity of work responsibilities being delivered whilst in the workplace. Hence the debate about whether this work is paid or not and why there needs to be a clear threshold to determine this.

The Government should define internships in legislation.
Further, interns should be paid the National Minimum Wage for the work that they do.