Oh boo hoo; get over yourself. You should be glad that some hard-pressed employer trying to make a profit so that he can employ people is good enough to spare the time for you to faff around so you can have something to put on your CV. You probably want free, taxpayer-funded education too.

Unpaid work experience is third world practice. I know where Nurses have to do 3 months unpaid work time at 12 hours a day before they are accepted as trainee nurse. This happens in a third world country.
Here it is just budging on someone for nothing. It is a far right thing.

I tend to disagree, given this often the only way some folk can get enough work experience to actually make them useful. And or demonstrate some go getter initiative.

As long as it can be accomplished in three or so months, and while the applicant remains supported by the state nanny teat? If someone is paying something as support income, this is hardly slavery!

Up to me, they'd be sent to boot camp to toughen them up! Learn team work, survival skills, self reliance and self confidence, all while building self esteem and creating the sort of persona, an employer looks for!
Alan B.

Presumably people doing work experience are supported by the state and if it leads to a job, then who cares if it's slavery?
I have an autistic grandson on DSP who did two mornings a week unpaid in an IT repair shop and who now has a permanent part time job with them because they were so pleased with his work ethic.
He was happy to do it just for the skill gain alone, the job was an extra bonus.

The real problem is the lack of paid work available, and that in turn is the result of the government running contractionary fiscal policy instead of providing the stimulus that's needed.

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SURVIVAL SKILLS, Alan B? Why would you want that?

There are certainly some people who'd react in the way you think, but most of them would've joined the army anyway. For far more people, such a course of action would be deeply destructive, both to them and the nation due to the resentment caused.

Let us not devalue the meaning of "slavery":
Slavery has nothing to do with being paid or not being paid - slavery occurs when one is forced to obey orders under threat of violence.

Well now, what springs to mind on this subject is comparisons. What is described here by the author, is comparative to work for the dole schemes, and the myriad of other work experience "opportunities" (sic).
Higher education in Australia has become quite iniquitous, and totally self serving. Handing out four year work visas with optional citizenship to overseas graduates, on completion of a degree obtained at an Australian university, is not helpful to Australian born students when job hunting.
Australia is more and more about business, and nothing about consequences to its citizens.
The place has turned itself into a sick joke!
This example is simply more evidence of that situation to me.

These internships are not 'unpaid'. The internee is receiving jobseeker benefits paid by the taxpayer, or they are receiving an allowance from their babyboomer/Gen-X Mums and Dads.

The bosses who employ them are laughing all the way to the bank.

@ Big Nana, Your grandson did have a great luck anyway.

@Yuyutsu i think you have a nice point, i do not see that as slavery anyway, as long they are not force to do what they don't want to do.

From experience, young school leavers or graduates take a while to become productive and require the time of an experienced mentor. The greater the level of skill required the longer the time and cost of mentoring, and the greater value the intern garners.

If done properly, this process benefits both parties. However, there are instances where this is abused, and interns are simply used as cheap unskilled labor. I have no problem with naming and shaming these charlatans, and putting in place requirements such as a time limit, and job training, where if the employers don't meet certain requirements, that the interns receive minimum wages for their time.

However, one needs to be careful not to be too prescriptive or one will simply kill off the practise completely.

To much trust in employers ,they can not pay the right wages with out being stood over.

Doog,

It's often said that employers want employees with experience, but it's only possible to get experience by working, which is why youth unemployment is much higher than the average.

This is a quick way to get youngsters started before they get any responsibilities. Deal with the crooks, and don't stuff up what works.