Graduates are losing out to interns when applying for jobs, highlighting the dominance of work experience as a key tool in securing employment, research suggests.
Those without work experience stand little chance of securing a job this year, despite a rise in vacancies, the report also claims. More than a third of the graduate vacancies available this year are expected to be taken by people who have already worked for the firm while they were studying, High Fliers Research predicted.
Huffington Post UK blogger Jordan Philipps raised the issue of people undertaking work experience still being unpaid and argued why we cannot "let the internship debate disappear". Meanwhile, Tanya de Grunwald, founder of Graduate Fog, a graduate careers site, dubbed young people working for free as "Stockholm Syndrome Interns".
The report is bound to reignite the age-old debate of whether interns should be paid, as the report highlights no Curriculum Vitae is complete without the standard work experience stint.
Ben Lyons, co-director of Intern Aware, said: "Now that it has been shown work experience is crucial for many graduate jobs, it is even more important that these opportunities are paid and offered on the basis of talent.
"Working for free and having friends in high places can’t be the qualification for getting a job.”
The report, which looks at the graduate job market in 2012, found that the employers expect to hire 6.4% more university leavers this summer than they did last year. Nearly half of the firms questioned said they would recruit more graduates this summer, with a further quarter aiming to take on the same number as in 2011.
But in total, 36% of the vacancies on offer this year are likely to be filled by applicants who worked for the company concerned while they were at university, meaning that many of those without work experience are likely to be left out in the cold.
More than half of recruiters say that graduates who have no previous work experience are unlikely to make it through their selection process, and have little or no chance of securing a job offer for their graduate programme.
Despite the increase in job openings, competition is still likely to be tough this year.
The publication, based on a survey of leading graduate employers, found on average, companies have received 19% more applications during the early part of this year's recruitment season than they did last year.
And those leaving university this summer will be in competition with previous graduates; a third of applications from this university academic year (since October 2011), have been from people who finished their degree in 2011 or earlier, the report concludes.
It also warns although there is an increase in graduate vacancies, job openings at leading firms remain below pre-recession levels - with recruitment for this year 6% below that recorded in 2007.
At the same time, an extra 50,000 new graduates will leave university this summer compared with five years ago.
Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said the rise in graduate vacancies is "welcome news".
But he warned: "Today's report includes the stark warning to the 'Class of 2012' that in a highly competitive graduate job market, new graduates who've not had any work experience at all during their time at university have little hope of landing a well-paid job with a leading employer, irrespective of the academic results they achieve or the university they've attended."
At the time, a LibDem spokesperson ruefully admitted there "should be a proper remuneration for unpaid interns."
"In an ideal world we would want to pay everyone a wage for the work they do," he added.
General secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Michelle Stanistreet said the practice continues to "exploit dreams and exclude new talent".
"Employers in the media should be warned; we will continue to take on those who seek to exploit young people and new comers to the industry.
The media industry is already highly competitive and difficult for less well-off people to get into. It is ultimately the responsibility of all of us to make sure that it doesn’t become a hobby that only the very rich can afford to take part in.”
A recent NUJ survey of 500 students on work placements found nearly 70% received no expenses during their work placements. Some were expected to pay out of their own pocket for travel to research stories. More than 80% had their work published, of these 82% did not receive payment.