[LRUG] Running tech internships in startups, and doing it fairly

[Tim Cowlishaw]

Hi there Chris,

On 1 June 2012 09:24, Chris Adams <mail at chrisadams.me.uk> wrote:
> but the main thing stopping us has been struggling to find specific guidance on
> how to do it *fairly*.

If you're expecting an intern to complete specific tasks or keep
specific hours, it's a legal requirement to pay them the minimum wage,
as they are de-facto employed, whatever the terms of their agreement
states. In addition, i'd consider a fair minimum to be the London
Living Wage (although that's just my opinion).

However, if you're taking someone on just to 'shadow' an existing
member of staff then this requirement is relaxed - the intern isn't
performing specific duties so isn't 'employed' in the same way (and
since they're not performing specific duties, the company isn't
deriving as much value from their presence, relaxing the ethical
requirement for pay).

Both forms of internship can be extremely valuable in my opinion, and
are equally valid. In fact, in companies with particularly complex
codebases or systems, the second variant might be the only one that's
practical, given that it could take longer to ramp an intern up to
being productive than they have available! The main point is that if
an intern is contributing financial value to an organisation, they
should be compensated financially.

There's a second slightly thornier issue here, which is that opting to
run the second (unpaid) type of internship limits access to only those
with other means of support while the internship takes place, which
would be a great shame, as I think this sort of programme is precisely
what's needed to encourage people who wouldn't normally work in tech
to consider it as a career, and hopefully eventually make the tech
industry a little less white and a little less male (Although, by
selecting for people who are already productive developers, the first
(paid) option might also have the same effect).  For this reason, I'd
strongly advocate paying  some sort of stipend even to interns who are
only work-shadowing.

This leads to another important point - It'd be absolutely awesome, if
you decide to run any internship scheme, to make a point of
advertising it outside of university computer science departments,
tech recruitment fairs, and online geek communities. (especially as I
think AMEE is an awesome example of a software company solving an
important and interesting problem outside of the typical remit of
computer software, and you guys would make an excellent example of why
this is a great industry to work in, even for those who hadn't
previously considered it.)

In general, it sounds like a great idea, good luck! Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Tim