Adopt an Intern

Let's be honest. Now is not the best time to be a graduate. The economic crisis has created a situation whereby over a million 16-24 year olds are unemployed in the UK, a fifth of whom are graduates. The possibility of yet another "lost generation" plagued by the psychological scars of long term unemployment is very real.

Notwithstanding the UK Government's "Graduate Talent Pool" and their "Backing Young Britain Initiative", there has been little assistance to help Scotland's struggling graduates. Last November we felt compelled to act. It was an ethical and economic imperative.

Using our extensive network of contacts across the private, public and voluntary sector we sent out a call to action to both our members and associates intimating that we would put placements from a plethora of sectors in front of those struggling graduates.

From a single initial invite 67 organisations expressed an interest in the Adopt an Intern programme. Of these 67, 26 said they would definitely take on an intern and importantly - particularly after the Milburn Commission- many of them agreed that they would pay the minimum wage.

The premise of this public-private partnership was simple: those who could pay the interns would while those who couldn't would be subsidised from a funding source, something we continue to actively pursue.

Thus far, without funding, we have managed to successfully place 8 paid interns with CSPP members/affiliated organisations.  A further 32 graduates are presently being interviewed by 12 companies.  We now have some funding and are hopeful that more will be forthcoming in the very near future.  This is enabling us to place interns with worthy organisations who cannot afford to pay for an intern themselves.