29th March 2006, 02:28 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by the invisible man
It's the extreme example of an entire post-ex sorting department (!) in a commercial organisation that I wonder about. I suppose that there is nothing wrong with a firm gaining a commercial advantage if they can get unpaid staff to carry out relatively repetitive, possibly monotonous (did I say that?[:I]) tasks if under experienced skilled supervision. Or even highly skilled work if they have the skill.
I know either the organisation that you are talking about or another similar situation. Some of my friends used to work there. That work was voluntary but it counted as part of their 'fieldwork' quota for their undergrad degree. I don't think you can really expect undergraduates to gain relevant experience and get paid for it? OK, they did more than their required quota (20 days) but isn't that a good thing, to gain as much experience as possible? And granted, many of them weren't ever planning to go into a career as an archaeologist but they were (are) keen and interested and most are now either doing further studies (PhDs) or working in related fields.
D
I dig dead people