7th September 2005, 08:33 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by eggbasket
Thinking about it, this is the area where I disagree with destroyer. In my opinion, you should not have to volunteer just to get the experience you need and I think this is a bad hangover from the bad old days when archaeology was not professional. Archaeologists are professionals (degree or not). Therefore, it seems to me that they should be trained and paid while they train. It might only be a training wage but I do think that it is disgusting that archaeologists should have to volunteer to get the experience they need. How many other professions rely upon people gaining their experience as volunteers first?
Actually eggbasket, i quite agree with you, why should people have to volunteer to get training? Years ago i actually paid to go on digs, after which i finally managed to get paid work. Ideally this wouldnt happen but in this job of ours, which some people actually want to do for fun during their holidays, its a matter of competing against everybody else.
As an example of another profession though in a similar position look at journalism. My brother did his degree, while volunteering for hours every week editing the student rag, he did his professional postgrad journalism courses while volunteering on local papers and even then he struggled to get work due to a lack of experience. Its catch 22, no exp=no work, no work=no exp. Volunteering is a way to break through that problem, until units are able to afford to hire non-digging graduates and put them through proper training