An article on work experience published on Times Online this week has stirred some debate. The piece discusses the idea of employers charging interns for work experience placements.
While the article talks about the recent auctioning off of work experience placements by the likes of Conde Nast for charity, these auctions are nothing new.
But the idea of paid-for placements abroad are also discussed and there are some interesting comments from Dr Paul Redmond, head of careers and employability at the University of Liverpool, who has made a study of work experience for a recent book.
"Middle-class parents have decoded the system," he tells the Times. "They realise there's a cultural capital associated with certain placements. Some are more equal than others."
I don't know of any news organisations or publishers charging for work experience placements outside of these charitable organisations or gap-year schemes but could news groups be considering it at a time of strapped resources, as Dr Redmond suggests.
Work experience is an unregulated business — industry groups have previously suggested terms for minimum wage payments to qualified journalists taking up placements. But from anecdotal experience this isn't enforced.
Skillset and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) are proposing new guidelines to promote better practice amongst employers. But a poll on the union's website this week — asking if work experience students are used to fill gaps in staffing by editors — suggests interns are being relied on for more than just tea and coffee making.
What's your experience — either as intern or employer? I'd be really interested in hearing your comments on what can be done to protect placement students from being exploited, yet make taking on work experience students viable for news groups too.
