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Doing 1,000 hours of unpaid work to graduate is the reality of 'placement poverty' — and it's taking a toll on students (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Literally every uni in Australia requires it, but not for every degree. Teaching and medicine are the two that come immediately to mind for me. From the article, it seems like social work also requires a sort of prac.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Engineering has 12 weeks full time.

I don't know if it's addressed by the review but TAFE certs often have placement reqs.

Law has something, there was a scandal a few years ago v where students were paying huge sums for placements at some institutions.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Engineering, at least at UQ where I did my degree, requires you do 60 days of work, but there's generally an expectation that you will be paid during that work. You're doing that work for private companies finding places yourself, so they kind of have to treat you as a normal intern (which in Australia, means being paid). It's different from the placements that the uni themselves organise with government departments like happens in medicine and education.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/starting-employment/unpaid-work/student-placements

Being paid is, unfortunately, not a legal requirement if work experience is a mandatory part of your course.

In SA paid internships exist but are very competitive. Most of my graduating class was unpaid.

I'm very glad to hear that's an expectation in Qld, companies should be ashamed to offer unpaid positions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Interesting... I studied software development at Swinburne (2008-2011) and every student in the course did a one year work placement in year 3. It was paid about 3/4 the salary of a graduate job.