So, if you didn’t know that you need work experience to land a job this summer, good luck sweeping the streets. The question is, at what cost do you get that experience? To be fair, arch-homosexual and journalist Johann Hari has been bleating for a while about how unfair work experience is as, often being unpaid, it favours those whose mummy and daddy can supplement the pocket money. 66% of young people feel obliged to work for free because of the recession – leaving them feeling exploited and underpaid. Be realistic: two weeks is about the limit for unpaid work, 4 weeks in the media. If the employer is trying to get more out of you than that, they are taking the piss: decline after two weeks and walk away – its still all on your CV. Make them understand that your own debts are huge, any business worth its salt will help you out. All you want is train and beer money after all (about £80 a day).
AS listed on Onrec, the NCWE’s tips to help students and graduates avoid exploitation:
• Discuss the purpose of the internship and clarify expectations from the start
• Ensure the placement is valuable – does it give insight into a particular industry? Will it improve certain skills or clarify career aspirations?
• Discuss the possibilities of any future paid work with employer, pointing out the skills that you have gained during the internship.
• Re-consider the value of the internship if it ceases to supply useful contacts and training opportunities
• Everyone has a choice and if the balance between valuable work experience tips into exploitation then it is up to you to decide whether to continue or not
Tags: getting paid for work experience, Work Experience, Work placements


Good old Gordon, he does know how to put his boot in. Not content with 4851 consecutive bad news stories surrounding the recession and expenses and the speaker and his general incompetence, his decided to clear up the definition of heat, just in case one or two of us become confused by the our available options. I’ve often been told I’m ‘Hanson, you’re so hot right now’ and I am, but personally I prefer to stick with the traditional ‘It’s so f****** hot’. And now the
What with the recession and all, the
If you work for
The affects of the recession are spreading far and wide as a joint report from 