Clegg's comments came in the first of a series of question and answer sessions posted by the leaders of all the main political parties on social networking site The Student Room.
He said: "There are now a lot of interns working very hard and getting paid little or nothing for it. The danger is ending up in a situation where internships are exclusive to those young people whose parents can afford to help them. Internships can be an amazing way of getting a flavour for a possible career when you're young and that option should be open to as many young people as possible. I know myself how fantastic that experience can be - I got to intern in New York, working on a magazine called ‘The Nation' for Christopher Hitchens.
"Opening up the opportunity to intern to more people is important to my party, and we have a plan to create 800,000 internships in our first year in office, helping all the young people now struggling to find work. We've made sure that those places will be paid at £55 a week - enough to cover basic costs, and more than you get collecting Job Seekers' Allowance."
