27th August 2012, 07:11 PM
I think he's getting a bit confused between 'trainee' and 'volunteer'. Trainee in commercial archaeology terms should be a valuable position, a means of getting useful experience for a future professional, although ideally in a paid position, although the undercutting nature of most tenders means it is probably quite likely to lead to exploitation. 'Volunteer' could mean almost anything by comparison - in my experience mostly, as Carver says, pensioners, hobbists etc, who aren't going to be looking at the BAJR jobs page any time soon for a new assistant contract. Fair enough that they want to be involved but why not on projects aimed directly at the community perhaps carrying out all that important research in areas that might not be touched by development, rather than on a building site where I would personally see even an endless supply of free labour as a liability if its ability was uncertain and its reliability unknown. It's not a question of stealing labour rather devaluing the already under valued skills of profession archaeologists (apparently especially the 35s who are seemingly deemed as worthless by some of their 'colleagues' - see other thread).