Internships

The National Internship Scheme is the name of the proposal for companies to offer three month internships to graduates having trouble in the labour market this summer.

As yet, details are a bit scanty. The companies named actually already offer internships. Does this mean that they'll be paid to do what they were going to do already, or will they add more interns?

Is three months long enough for graduates to gain useful skills (I think so, but will the employment market)?

What about other, established internship schemes? Will they be getting money? Who will administer these schemes, and how will students get onto them? Will it be limited to certain institutions (either purposely or effectively)?

And when the recession is over, will the companies then start to claim they can't offer internships without public money? This is the question that bothers me.

That said, I'm glad that John Denham and his departmnet are actually thinking about the situation that students will find themselves in and trying to do something about it. Let's hope they've got this right and the graduates benefit.