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Skillset is recommending that companies limit work experience placements to 160 hours in total, and reimburse expenses, after research showed 44% of the creative media workforce had carried out unpaid work at the start of their career.
This recommendation is part of the the first-ever guidelines for employers regarding work placement schemes in the creative industries, produced by Skillset, Creative & Cultural Skills and Arts Council England. The guidelines stressed the need for "fair and equitable access to all entry routes" to ensure "candidates from all backgrounds" can be considered equally.
Other areas of recommendation include paying at least the national minimum wage for anyone on a graduate internship and limiting the working week of trainees and interns to 40 hours.
The report applauded work placement schemes for providing "opportunities and benefits to both individuals and employers".
But, it added: "An over supply of people wishing to enter the industry has resulted in the representation of the creative industries as being notoriously hard to break in to and a culture of low or unpaid entry positions.
"Available roles often go to the few with the right connections, rather than those with the most talent and potential. Provisions should therefore be in place for promoting fair and equitable access to all entry routes, thereby opening them up to candidates from all backgrounds.
"Fair opportunities should exist for both people who wish to embark on a career and for those who wish to move on in their careers in the creative industries."