Call for £2.50-an-hour training wage for interns

A training wage of £2.50-an-hour should be paid to interns working for a minimum of three months as it would boost UK productivity, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CPID).

The CPID has also called for the government to offer the right to request flexible working for all employees and “a step-change in the UK’s leadership and people management skills” to enable the UK to keep pace with competitors internationally.

John Philpott, chief economic adviser said: "The government wants to foster a strong, private sector-led, economic recovery, but we have yet to see a coherent strategy for economic growth to sit alongside the chancellor's very clear-cut approach to reducing the fiscal deficit.

"The coalition needs to show greater urgency in implementing measures to help boost the long-run supply side capacity of the UK economy, which must include efforts to boost productivity by improving the way in which businesses manage the people they employ."

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency almost 22% of 2009 graduates who were employed six months after graduating had work experience, largely through internships, representing the largest group of university leavers.

Critics of unpaid work schemes such as internships have argued that young people from poorer backgrounds are at a disadvantage to more financially secure or better connected peers.

Campaign group Inernocracy and IPPR thinktank reported last July that the majority of interns could and should be legally defined under national minimum wage legislation as workers and are therefore entitled to launch claims for back-payment of wages.

The CIPD’s has called for the government to introduce legislation to implement minimum training wages for those on extended internships or work placements.