The marketing industry’s efforts to attract the next generation of talent could be being hampered by companies being too mean, with claims that only internships in the notoriously penny-pinching fashion sector pay less while consulting firms pay way more.
According to one recent study, the average internship salary across the UK is £20,715 a year, but new research by investment site Invezz.com scoured more than 1,000 intern positions to find out levels of pay.
Internships in fashion are the lowest paid, with an average monthly salary of £600 for jobs including fashion ecommerce intern and buying intern. Meanwhile marketing internship roles command an average pay of just £800 per month. These cover an array of job roles in digital marketing, PR, and communications. And, like fashion, the monthly average salary is well below the national living wage.
Next up are sales intern roles which fair little better at £950 per month, although there is at least the opportunity to increase this once commission is earned.
In comparison, the highest paid intern role is within the consulting sector at an average income of £1,700 per month. Internship opportunities found on Indeed.co.uk include business consultant intern, cyber security consultant intern and energy practice consultant intern.
Taking second place are roles within the business sector, with applicants receiving an average monthly salary of £1,550. Roles listed on the job platform include business strategist intern, business development intern and global strategic intern.
The third highest paid intern role is in finance, with an average salary of £1,500 per month. Internship opportunities vary between accounting, banking, and stockbroking. Number-savvy interns who decide to pursue a career in finance can earn 19.3% more than the average intern salary.
In fourth place is an internship in research which can pay on average £1,450 per month. Indeed.co.uk offers roles such as trading research intern, AI research intern and research and development intern.
Making the top five highest paid internships is a role in web development – interns can earn an average salary of £1,440 per month. Content creator intern, data science intern and software engineer intern are some of the roles available online to students and graduates.
When it comes to regional differences, there is a North/South divide, but not necessarily one you would imagine as Derbyshire seems to be the internship hotspot for students and graduates. The average salary goes for £22,500 per year, a 6.8% increase on the national average for internships.
The West Midlands takes second place, with interns earning a potential annual income of £22,406 – a healthy £1,573 per month.
On the other hand, Essex seems to be the lowest paid county in England. On average, interns can earn £16,687 a year which equates to £1,249 a month, nearly £150 less than the UK’s living wage of £1,395 a month.
Talveer Sandhu from TheKnowledgeAcademy.com commented: “The job market is competitive, which is why internships are a proactive stage of attaining that necessary experience for a step on the career ladder. In the past, internships have received negative press with many employers not paying their interns accordingly, so it is reassuring to see that many industries are breaking through that stereotype. However, it is still abundantly clear that certain sectors need to pay their interns more fairly with a realistic living wage.”
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