Re: Slave labour?
Interesting replies. When students are attending university as usual, almost all of them work part time to afford their expenses. Not many get pocket money off their parents for booze or whatever. But when they’re on placements, they’re working full time and not getting paid yet they’re supposed to pay for rent, bills, food, transport etc. Very tough unless you have a load of savings (which I doubt since students don’t get to save much at all) or if they work a separate job on the weekends (which one of my friends did when she got a placement in Oxford, UK… she was working 7 days a week for 6 months!) or if their parents pay for the 6 or 9 months, which isn’t fair since they’ve already paid a good amount for fees etc and that isn’t cheap any more.
I’m not saying interns must be paid, just saying it’s tough.
Worldwide in terms of the recession. Companies around the globe are cutting back wages for students. The Irish government is now planning on abolishing wages for student nurses. Two of my classmates got a placement in Holland and they had to pay for every single thing themselves. The company didn’t even help them relocate. Another one went to the US and again, she had to pay for everything. We were quite a disappointed lot in 3rd year and even more disappointed when we finally graduated. 