I went to Florence this summer. I went to Prague. I went to Oslo and I had a good deal of fun. But when I look back at this summer, my resounding memory will be of work experience. It’s funny they call it that really, as I never actually experienced work.

40% of graduates entering the arts industry today go via the path of unpaid internships and the numbers accepting these opportunities continue to rise. Following the crash of the financial sector, rising unemployment has led to a colossal oversupply of job-seekers in the arts, media and philanthropy. As reports chronicle the City’s falling popularity amongst new graduates, the discrepancy in pay between these professions and the City is greater now than ever before. Where banks and consulting firms offer five-figure sums to entice summer interns, employers in the culture industry face a labour pool so brimful that they can hire the best interns without offering any pay, and not even a stipend for travel expenses. Thus, interning now entails a net income of around minus ten pounds a day.

Some see no problem here. Even when (or rather, if) they become full-time, full-pay workers, these interns will still be paid far less than peers in ‘The City’ (capitalised - note deference). Should applicants continue to volunteer themselves with the prospect of merely accruing CV points?

The real issue here is of social equity. Experience counts towards graduate applications. So, flicking through a pile of CVs, what these firms are sorting is not the committed, eager applicant from his flaccid, listless brethren. Instead, they’re sorting those that can afford a summer devoid of income from those that can not. They’re selecting those fortunate enough to be based near economic centres, such as London, where these opportunities abound. Thus, a study into social mobility by former Cabinet minister, Alan Milburn, argued last year for an end to both unpaid internships and "qualification inflation".

The issue involved conflicting conceptions of what a ‘wage’ is. Is a ‘wage’ fair reward for productivity or simply the product when employers and applicants negotiate, balancing what they are willing to offer and to accept for ‘work’?

Many banks and law firms have had to correct their mistakes, positively discriminating towards women and those from less privileged backgrounds, but the media and arts sectors are slower to move in this direction.

So far the finance sector has been more concerned with level playing fields than the press have, but surely meritocratic selection and a diverse workforce are actually more crucial in journalism than in finance?

As the newspapers’ newest recruits come from a narrower cohort of society, the views and experiences that reach the reading public will surely slim down. More to the point, journalism needs a wider input of creativity as the written word is busily being overthrown by visual alternatives and a dwindling market. Diversity in the workforce would broaden the scope for new ideas and innovation to keep the profession alive.

But are these unpaid internships providing any advantageous vocational experience for applicants, or as with the issue of ‘qualification inflation’, are we squandering our youth over mere paper points? High-paid internships are infamous for squeezing every last penny out of their prey and thus introducing them to the profession fully. But where firms have invested nothing in their interns they have nothing to lose if they fail to use these initially enthusiastic hands.

For some, this question of utilisation justifies the discrepancy in pay. But those on unpaid internships are no less willing to work long hours and be put to use – in fact, it is exactly this experience that we are looking to gain. All rational, economic and social arguments fail to look at the unpaid internship closely, simply and personally.

During my own experience, I was instructed one morning to copy excerpts from a monumental article. Wading through the mundanity, I thought to myself, "No Avantika, you will not be bored by this menial, soul-obliterating task." I sought to make it fun. Now, fun is a relative concept: I spent my morning alternating between ‘right-click, copy, right-click, paste’ and ‘control, C, control, V’. I made a little rhythm as I repeated the sequence in my head. It was a little left of iambic pentameter and a little right of Eminen. Thousands of young minds should not be bored and stretched to such harrowing lengths over vacations to come.