With nearly a million young people unemployed in Britain, getting in to the world of work is clearly becoming a strain.

For many the best way to gain new skills or to get into their sector is through an internship, but many are calling ‘the unpaid internship’ not just obstructive to social mobility but as also one of the main causes of such high youth unemployment.

But there are signs of change, as the government’s legal advisors state that many companies, including some governmental departments, may in fact be breaking the law by not paying their interns.

The main cause of the questionable legality of the ‘free labour’ of the internship is due to the lack of differentiation between what can be classed as ‘work experience’ and what can be classed as an internship - paid or unpaid.

Work experience is designed to be a few weeks at a work placement to learn about that sector and possibly gains some skills whilst internships are effectively designed to teach skills to potential employees.

On paper, if a worker is contributing ‘added value’ to company, by law they should be being paid at least the national minimum wage (£6.08).

However it is obvious through the proliferation of unpaid internships that this is not the case, as skilled workers are not necessarily receiving an hourly pay or even getting expenses reimbursed.

A Cambridge graduate  explained anonymously to The Observer that the minimum wage is constantly being ‘undermined’ as young people become increasingly desperate to get on the first rung of the employment ladder. Entry-level jobs in some sectors effectively no longer exist as work is being completed by unpaid interns.

Unpaid internships are also accused of reducing social mobility by making them available only to those who can effectively live independent of a wage for months on end.

The majority of internships are also based in London which further restricts access to those living in London or those able to commute in.

Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, in charge of maintaining NMW laws, has only prosecuted seven companies since the introduction of the laws in 1999.

However, two independent victories have been won by interns at employment tribunals, suggesting that those wishing to get reimbursed back pay are able to do so if they are willing to fight for it, quite often reaching hundreds, even thousands of pounds worth of reimbursement.

With government representatives stating that legally only ‘work experience’ should be unpaid, those who are participating internships not only deserve pay but may also be able to demand it by law.