Sutton Trust · 2025
This Sutton Trust research brief examines the prevalence, pay, and social inequalities of internships among recent graduates in Great Britain. It finds that over half of graduates (51%) have completed at least one internship, up 12 percentage points since 2018, but that 35% have undertaken an unpaid or underpaid internship. Graduates from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to complete an internship than their middle-class peers, and this class gap has widened from 12 to 20 percentage points since 2018. Access is further shaped by social capital — just 1 in 10 internships are found via open advertisement — and 40% of unpaid interns rely on financial support from parents, up from 26% in 2018.