when kids do work experience do you think they should be paid for it , or is it cheap labour for the company?

Answer 1

no, they should not get paid. Most are only ther to observe, and make t, or photocopy. if they are really good, they may get to hoover the floor too!! the company should not feel obliged to offer any reward, after all they end up loosing out on a weeks work, as someone needs to babysit the brat

Answer 2

Yes, they should be paid something, because in a lot of cases the companies get them to do the same work or nearly the same as their full time employees. Of course there is some training and a lot of help involved, but it's still work, so they should be paid a certain amount. It's a shame that it hardly ever happens because these students are saving the company quite a bit of work. Sometimes the schools are to blame as well, though, because when I was at school doing work experience I heard that another girl was going to be paid until the school rang up the company and told them not to. That's not fair at all. The same thing applies in Ireland when we do teacher training. There is no payment at all for the classes we teach, whereas in the UK I believe there is a payment. Student teachers do exactly the same work as full time qualified teachers and a lot of the time receive little or no help or training from the other teachers. It could even be argued that people on work experience or training are doing even more work, because it's their first time and they have to put more effort into it than someone who knows exactly what they're doing and how to do it!

Answer 3

Yeah I think there should get paid , because it is work at the end of the day , and there do call it wrok experience so the whole idea of work experience is to get experience like is actually real, so getting paid includes that, reality of when people do work there get paid, I first used to think it was ok , but that was when I went to high school and got some easy job, went after I left school I did work experince again , and in the last few days I was exhusted, I really did feel what works was, and worked the whole hours, thats when I realised , no we should get paid, we do put in effect like I did, not only that kids that are in school that do work experience , they have to travel to far distances, and have to pay for travel cost, that should be included in the pay at least , but there don't . This country is rich look at all the gameshows they have to hand out money to people, should be better spent elsewhere.

Answer 4

i think the kids should be paid something if they have worked hard, followed instructions and helped the company but unfortunately the generation of kids that are entering the workplace have been mollycoddled at home so do not have commonsense and are are quite lazy i speak as an employer of young people , i pay well, the minimum wage for under 18s is around £4.00 a hour i pay £5.50 , give them a meal and soft drinks make sure they get home safely even if that means me paying a cab fare for them but i have seen a lot of young kids not perform that well if that's the case i just don't ask them back so there fore i don't think they should always be paid also when you have to assign a member of staff to guide them through the working day it does cost the company money

Answer 5

I'm afraid I'm going to have to say No. They should not be paid.

The shop where I work used to take many work experience students. We regarded it as something we could do for the community. The kids got some experience and something to put on their resume. We basically got nothing. We finally had to stop as it was such a drain on our resources. We had to put a lot of energy and time to train them - not just how to use this machine or program, or what their duties entailled (as we would have to for any new employee) but we had to teach them EVERYTHING as it was usually there first or nearly first job. No, you can't stand and chat if your friends come in, no you don't chew gum like a dairy cow when you speak to customers, yes you actually have to clean the toilet - we ALL take turns!
Then when you have finally invested all that time and energy and attention and they start to get it - their work experience time is up and you get another newbie.

It was exhausting and benefitted us nothing. It's a shame we can no longer support this, but we had to finally appeal to the "higher ups" that we were getting nothing else done because of the sheer volume of attention and supervision they required.

Perhaps, if at the end of the experience they STAYED as paid employees - then we would at least finally get some benefit in the end for all the training we gave them - they would be contributing members of the staff. But they always went off to some other place for another round.

:)
AT

Answer 6

Not paid. In work experience the kids often have to just observe, follow and make coffee. They're 'paid' as such by getting something good for their CV, seeing what a workplace is actually like and if they're lucky picking up a new skill or two.

Answer 7

I don't think they should be paid as they are there to learn about the real world (within reason) of what can be expected of them when they start employment after school. The company itself has a responsibility to make sure the student has an 'across board' look at all aspects of the company's operation.

Answer 8

It is considered to be part of their education. They are there such a short time, that they don't really learn enough to work independently and make a real contribution to the company. Also, they are not on the payroll, so it would lead to complications.
Some employers give a bit of pocket money at the end, or a gift voucher to say thank you.

Answer 9

Yes, although perhaps not the same salary as an experienced employee but definitely some sort of restitution for the time and work they are putting in

Answer 10

I definitely think they should be paid for it. Even if it's a smaller amount just to show appreciation. My daughter did hers at BT...she did get to choose a gift at the end....but some cash would have been better! My niece got £80!!! Whilst her twin sister, who did hers elsewhere, got nothing!