"people are expected to work for extended periods for free"

How does this fit with minimum wage legislation?!

It's not just intern job opportunities in the leading political, media or NGO sectors that rely on unpaid labour.

Almost the entire environmental movement relies on volunteers. I have done several years of conservation work for free and, even with a good PhD, do not know if there will ever be a paid job for me.

I feel that the volunteer culture is totally out of control and now so large that it is undermining the development of commitments to skilled workers and the retention of experience within all sorts of organisations.

The level of student debt also means that the few opportunities which do exist all too frequently go to the people who have the money to back themselves, and that merit is playing less and less in the selection of people for posts.

I am starting to feel that volunteering should be banned or strictly limited and that humanity does not deserve to survive if it cannot bring itself to pay for the environment that it, and all other form of life, relies upon.

As things stand, chance and ad hoc personal endeavours are generally holding things together, but this is risky, unsustainable and inadequate, and I feel we need to take are core social and environmental requirements more seriously.

This intern network is a very welcome development, especially if it helps skilled people find properly paid work.