More than half of Australia's young adults have done unpaid work as part of an internship or a job trial, raising questions about the need for greater regulation of unpaid work to prevent exploitation, a landmark national study has found.
The study of 3800 people aged 18 to 29 from across the country is the first to investigate the prevalence of unpaid work in Australia and suggests it is becoming a pervasive norm in an increasingly competitive labour market.
Unpaid work experience now extends beyond traditional student placements in medicine, nursing and teaching to all areas across the workforce, including law, finance, creative arts, retail and hospitality.
The study findings have been released as the federal government prepares to introduce 120,000 internship placements over four years from this year as part of its Youth Jobs PaTH youth employment program. The University of Sydney is also planning to make work experience compulsory for all undergraduate students from next year.
Worth doing?
While one in four people doing unpaid work experience were offered a job and many were highly satisfied with the experience they gained, the study said it was unclear if unpaid work improved a person's chances of getting a job.
Commissioned by the Federal Department of Employment, the study found 58 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 had done unpaid work experience in the past five years. It estimated a third of Australians aged 18-64 had done some unpaid work.
The researchers from the University of Technology Sydney, Queensland University of Technology and University of Adelaide raised concerns about the need to improve access to work experience for young people from poorer backgrounds or in regional areas.
"There's a great degree of willingness from young people to participate in internships," lead study author Damian Oliver from the UTS business school said.
"The challenge is ensuring that those who struggle to afford an unpaid placement aren't excluded from employment opportunities."
Costs mount
The study showed that many young people had to pay for their own insurance, travel, equipment and other costs to secure an internship. It found those from poor backgrounds were less likely to participate in an unpaid internship.
Professions, including law, finance and journalism, had been generally dominated by people from privileged backgrounds because social networks promoted job opportunities and because wealthy families could afford to support their children while they did work experience, the researchers said.
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