Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust are currently offering:
Unpaid … ten high quality internships in 2012-13 … for a commitment to volunteer with us for 3-12 months, depending on the specific requirements of each role, for a minimum of 15 hours per week.
If ever the government needed to make progress on its social mobility strategy it’s now. Apparent abuses of the minimum wage legislation (like this one appears to be) mean that unless you have the money to subsidise an employer, then it becomes almost impossible to get a first step onto a (highly competitive and not hugely well paid) career in psychology.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are responsible for the recent publication of the Common Best Practice Code for High Quality Internships. The description given in the advertisement indicates that they are offering high quality internships as defined in the code (rather than placements or volunteering roles), so section 3 on remuneration would therefore appear to apply:
Internships must comply with all current employment legislation provisions.
National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation ensures that all workers in the UK who are over
compulsory school leaving age are entitled to be paid at least the NMW, unless they are
covered by an exemption in the NMW legislation.
If someone from the Trust would like to comment on this, then I’d be more than happy to publish your response here.