VANESSA FELTZ’S DAUGHTER DONATES WEEK PLACEMENT ON HER MUM’S RADIO SHOW
The BBC has launched an investigation into the abuse of work experience opportunities by senior employees — and told staff that placements should be given on merit, not sold at auction through private arrangements.
The news comes after 19-year-old Beverley Nesbitt claims she was ‘bullied’ by broadcaster Vanessa Feltz during a week of work experience she paid £120 for, after bidding at a university charity auction organised by Feltz’s daughter Saskia Kurer, 21.
Nesbitt — a second year film student at Manchester Metropolitan University — says she hoped the placement at BBC radio would help her make contacts in media. But she claims the placement turned sour after Feltz was “rude” and “horrible” to her. “In the end I just went to the toilet and cried. I must have been in there for two hours, just texting my mum. I just wanted to go home.”
She also claims that Feltz told her to “grow up” when she was asked to cold call potential guests on her show. She also claims that when Nesbitt admitted she hasn’t heard of the poet Yeats, Feltz told her to write a 2,000 essay on him — and scolded her when she didn’t deliver it the next day.
Graduate Fog has no inside scoop on whether any of Nesbitt’s claims are true – but I am glad to see the BBC have been forced to admit that unofficial unpaid interns are rife within its organisation.
This comes as a friend of mine has just jubilantly announced on Facebook that she’s got an internship with them. I’ll ask her if it’s paid.
@RedHeadFashionista
Yeah i don’t think they’re saying they’re banning all unpaid internships unfortunately – just they’re investigating cases of senior staff being total arses (which frankly shouldn’t happen whether people are paid or not) and this thing about making private arrangements through auctions. Still, it’s a start.
Would be interesting to hear what sort of work your friend is asked to do when she’s there though – keep us posted?
Having been 1) on a work experience placement at the BBC and 2) subsequently recruited by them as a result and 3) put in charge of recruiting other work experience candidates as part of that role, I feel I am in a place to comment here…(I’m a regular commenter on here, but goin anon for this one)
There are a lot of strict regulations when it comes to doing work experience at the Beeb. This includes a strict maximum 4 week period people are allowed to work for, not a day more, and every single person had to complete a 6 hour online training course on health and safety / working in a studio before doing anything.
You can also only apply to do one work experience placement every 12 months. There is a strict and thorough recruitment process, all done through applications online and HR, and when recruited you are given packs and information, mentoring and help throughout the whole process.
And in my experience, there has always been a chance to actually get employment with the BBC afterwards. It is not simply a case of getting free labour, but a chance to show your skills and see whether you want to actually do the job. Being a runner isn’t for everyone, better to find that out before rather than after you get into a four month contract on a TV series. You can get a lot out of it, and if you have no other way “in”, this is definitely a way to do it. (I did.)
I got to do some really exciting stuff on a live broadcast, and although I make a generally make a stand against unpaid internships, I think it’s worth noting: the Vanessa Feltz thing is a) an exception, and not done in the usual way work experience would normally be done and b) a story from the Daily Mail, who have the biggest BBC-shaped chip on their shoulder in the world anyway.
Also, I think when looking at “work experience” placements at the BBC (not of the Vanessa Feltz sort) – where there is a strict rules to what they can and can’t do, and a fixed timescale as there is at the BBC, this is a whole world away from the magazines, media companies and politicians who recruit you unpaid for months on end, with nothing signed by you the candidate, no contracts or safeguarding in place, no health and safety training, and certainly no chance at a job afterwards.
@Anon – thanks for this – very interesting indeed! It sounds like things may have changed since my day – I worked unpaid at the BBC for months, circa 2003… And I never signed any kind of contract, or received any special pack, or any dedicated mentor to help me… and there was no job at the end of it!
I also read today that the BBC are now making redundancies, so I wonder whether the quality of work experience placements will suffer…? Let’s hope not – but I’ve seen in other media companies that the youngest members of staff are often the first to feel it when the cuts come. One magazine I worked for that used to have a features assistant (a brilliant 6 month, paid job for someone starting out), has just cut that role… which saves them pennies (£7k?) relatively – compared with what it costs to run a magazine – yet is was the first role to go…