Six out of ten internships in the UK still don’t pay properly. Let that sink in for a moment. 

Over 60% of recent graduate internships were under-paid or not paid at all, whilst 40% of interns had to rely on financial support from family in order to make the opportunity feasible.

These damming statistics alone shut the door on many younger people’s opportunities, where working for free simply isn’t an option. 

I was fortunate to be someone who could live at home and commute to London to complete an internship at a top London agency as a way to enter the advertising industry. It was of course unpaid, and I believed, like many others, it was a rite of passage required to earn your stripes and land the coveted entry level job in the industry that I was so eager to make my own. In my case, it worked out well and after a six-month unpaid internship I landed an Account Executive role.  

However, I’m acutely aware that I was one of the ‘lucky ones’ whose family circumstance and proximity to the city allowed me to pursue my career ambitions regardless of the financial insecurity and burden created by an unpaid internship.  

Meanwhile thousands of ‘unlucky ones’, brimming with energy and ideas miss out every year on the opportunity to make their mark on the industry. This is because they’re excluded from the unattainable first rung on the career ladder, and not given so much as a helping hand to get there - when the unavoidable yet soaring rent, travel and all round living costs prevent many from indulging in the privilege that I benefitted from. 

Fast forward 15 years, and with the industry finding itself in a precarious position, with AI and network takeovers stealing the headlines from creativity and independence - protecting the life blood of talent that is the future of this industry has grown in prominence. However, with client budgets shrinking at a similar pace to the number of independent agencies left in London, graduate schemes are hard to come by and restricted in their investment. 

Agencies temptation for unpaid internships (let’s call it unpaid labour) only benefits those for who it is feasible, excluding everyone else in the process and missing out on talent from all over the country. 

At Neverland, we launched the third edition of The Flying Academy. Combatting the industry negligence spotlighted above, The Flying Academy was set up to ensure opportunity is available to everyone, not the select few. We’re passionate about finding and nurturing talent in all its diverse forms - and we’re equally as passionate about ensuring we’re not excluding (and missing out on) top talent because of the price of a train ticket, or the absence of a degree that was never an option. 

Our Flying Academy interns are paid £30k p/a, well above the London Living Wage as they’re each given the opportunity to explore every department across a 12-week programme. This salary gives our interns time. Time to trial, time to experience, time to learn. This allows those starting out in their career to pave a way based on passion, not on what they can afford. 

If every agency in London offered a paid internship - with no criteria outside of raw talent and a hunger to learn, the industry would become infinitely more diverse. Creativity thrives off different voices, and in a year when networks have monopolised the industry, I can’t think of a more critical moment in time for diversity in all its forms to be championed over ubiquity. 

If the industry wants to represent the world it speaks to, it must represent the world it hires from. Otherwise, we’ll find the 60% of underpaid/unpaid internships will be filled by those with financially comfortable backgrounds, and our ideas will stay just as comfortable. 

To those of you still looking for that first opportunity (and perhaps feeling lost in the process), please know your worth and that there are opportunities out there (if you look hard enough) for you to spread your wings and fly, totally unclipped. 

And to my neighbouring agencies, this isn’t just about doing what’s right. It’s about staying relevant. Diversifying your culture and your offering, protecting your USP. 

We’ve made progress in 15 years, but not nearly enough. And as long as unpaid internships exist, the industry will keep filtering by privilege instead of talent. 

As one of the ‘lucky ones’, I will feel forever compelled to help shift this narrative in order to ensure that our industry's persistent unpaid labour becomes an ugly thing of the past, in the near future.