Saving the sea for free

Unpaid internships and why they should be banned.

By Sophie Plant, Young Sea Changers Scotland Project Coordinator

Despite increasing criticism of international ‘voluntourism’ in recent years, unpaid placements, long-term volunteering roles and full-time ‘internships’ are still commonplace in the UK marine sector closer to home.  

Often driven by a desire to engage young people, coupled with a lack of funding to support this ambition, many organisations offer voluntary roles with the promise of training, experience and skill development. 

However, we often hear from our members of YSCS, this puts a huge amount of pressure on aspiring marine professionals in an already challenging and competitive field.

These unpaid roles are skewing young people’s job prospects, the marine job market as a whole and the third-sector funding landscape more widely.  

Access & Exclusion 

Unpaid internships are fundamentally only available to students and early careers professionals who can afford to survive without any income, often those with family who are able to support them financially. Full-time and long-term roles are even more financially exclusive as they limit young people’s ability to work part-time to support themselves. Young people with other demands, such as young carers or those with disabilities, are even less likely to be able to take up these roles. 

We’ve also heard from our members that there are also often hidden costs associated with these positions, especially those located in rural areas (where marine conservation roles often are). For example, moving house (even temporarily) can incur costs, have higher rent or require a car for transportation. Some roles require specialist equipment (such as outdoor gear, binoculars, snorkelling/diving kit) which are not always provided and must be therefore purchased by the intern out of pocket. 

Meaningful training

Most of the time these unpaid roles are offered with the best of intentions in mind. Organisations looking to engage more young people in marine conservation and support their work.  

However, there is also a need to be honest with ourselves as a sector. In small, charitable organisations, there is often a widespread lack of funding, a huge amount of work to do and a core team stretched to capacity and on the brink of burnout.  

In this context, the appeal of a willing (“passionate”) young volunteer to plug the capacity gaps and support project delivery is a tempting idea. Another pair of hands can go a long way when the team is struggling.  

However, this can come at a cost to the young person. Tasked with the menial jobs or the reverse - suddenly given responsibility for important day-to-day operations without sufficient training - young professionals can often find themselves feeling out of depth and unsupported, or like they’ve given their time and energy without having gained valuable skill-building experience in exchange.  

So-called ‘training opportunities’ can leave young people feeling even more disempowered and disenfranchised than before. 

Shifting baselines

In an already competitive sector, the ubiquity of these voluntary roles is having an insidious effect on the marine conservation job market.  

Employers for paid entry-level roles are seeing hundreds (if not thousands!) of applications, most of whom have voluntary experience and are vastly overqualified, some with years' worth of un-paid experience. “Passion”, evidenced via the countless voluntary roles, is a much-rewarded character trait. These applicants are hired for the entry-level roles and soon the expectations of what ‘entry level’ means has shifted without us noticing.  

All the while, those without the unpaid experience are left by the wayside without a hope to gain even the most junior roles.  

Lack of diversity

The inaccessibility of these roles and the subsequent effect on recruitment patterns, is also having a wider impact. Marine science has been found to be one of the least diverse degree subjects according to UCAS, and other research shows a glaring lack of ethnic diversity in the marine sector as a whole. 

Tackling these barriers at the entry-level is absolutely critical if we are to get more people from diverse backgrounds in the sector.  

The value of volunteering

All this to say, I do believe there is a place for volunteering in marine conservation, advocacy and policy. We should be encouraging everyone to get involved in their local marine conservation efforts, form community groups and campaign for better protection of their local areas.  

For me, the difference is that when young people’s enthusiasm and time is being taken for granted to plug operational gaps, accessibility and exclusion is not considered, and unpaid interns are not being rewarded with valuable training in exchange, it does a disservice to the sector and we lose brilliant, talented people along the way.