Charity says internships should be available for all

13:00 26th January 2009

A specialist charity has said that internships and training programmes should be made available to all, regardless of background.

The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), which specialises in supporting talented students from low-income households through university and into high-flying careers, encouraged British universities to do more to seek out promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Internships frequently offer computing courses, IT training and additional experience which can help further students' careers, but the charity argued that more could be done to help provide access to them.

Geoffrey Vos QC, chairman of the Social Mobility Foundation, said: "It's extremely important to make sure that internships are available to talented people from all backgrounds so they have a chance to enter into those professions and businesses [that they want]."

Mr Vos added that improvements could still be made to ensure that talented students from poorer families had the same opportunities as their wealthier counterparts.

The Schwartz Report - Review 2008 found that further education colleges are not as likely as higher education institutions to have definite admission policies.