11th October 2008, 12:34 PM
I'm not sure I'm thinking about the same RAO as redearth, but it happens that there are some people who work on trainee placements at an RAO of my experience who were repeatedly accused of systematically using trainees to drive their prices down, and I'm glad to say (at least in the time I was there) that that accusation was completely untrue, less glad to say that it was basically malicious. In my experience it wasn't a cynical ploy to get free labour, but a genuine attempt to offer relevant training, and a lot of the trainees went on to get work, either with the unmentioned RAO or elsewhere. It often happens that the cash just isn't there to take someone on at the end of a placement and they decide to volunteer as they know that they'll be better placed to be offered work if it does come up- this is pretty much how I started working. If there was money I got paid, if not I didn't. Yes this left me potentially open to exploitation, but to be fair to the unit in question (also now an RAO but not then), they were straight up about it and I got paid on average 3 days a week for 4 months before I got on full time. Volunteering got me the chance to do finds drawing, inking in (yes I am that old...) and learn lots about Roman pottery that I've since forgotten. Beats the dole for cash and experience, and I don't regret it.
This causes a bit of a problem as to where to use this kind of volunteer- I think that everyone would agree that using them on commercial jobs is ethically dubious at best, but it's where they'd get more useful experience, and a lot ask to work on this kind of project, knowing that they'll put it down on the CV as professional experience and it'll be easier to get a job next time with a couple of extra months on the CV and a non-academic referee who could testify to their ability to dig properly. You'd have to ask them whether they felt they were being exploited. I suppose it comes down how systematically you're doing it and whether you're bidding on the basis that you can use free labour. These, by the way would be BAD.
A few less scrupulous PMs might 'let' them on these jobs to help their project budgets, and I fell out with them over it. I've just realised how off topic this is and don't want to delete my thoughts. New thread anyone?
As for the charities, I worked in Borsetshire (or somewhere similar) for a while (9 months all told). Never knew they were a charity till a couple of years after I left. Still, I was pretty green at the time. I think there needs to be some sort of reiew give the changing circumstances, but as someone pointed out, there are several charities that have since gone private, so there have to be some disadvantages. I can gues what the cynical would say here though...
(edited to avoid appearing to condoning exploitation of trainees. This is WRONG)
This causes a bit of a problem as to where to use this kind of volunteer- I think that everyone would agree that using them on commercial jobs is ethically dubious at best, but it's where they'd get more useful experience, and a lot ask to work on this kind of project, knowing that they'll put it down on the CV as professional experience and it'll be easier to get a job next time with a couple of extra months on the CV and a non-academic referee who could testify to their ability to dig properly. You'd have to ask them whether they felt they were being exploited. I suppose it comes down how systematically you're doing it and whether you're bidding on the basis that you can use free labour. These, by the way would be BAD.
A few less scrupulous PMs might 'let' them on these jobs to help their project budgets, and I fell out with them over it. I've just realised how off topic this is and don't want to delete my thoughts. New thread anyone?
As for the charities, I worked in Borsetshire (or somewhere similar) for a while (9 months all told). Never knew they were a charity till a couple of years after I left. Still, I was pretty green at the time. I think there needs to be some sort of reiew give the changing circumstances, but as someone pointed out, there are several charities that have since gone private, so there have to be some disadvantages. I can gues what the cynical would say here though...
(edited to avoid appearing to condoning exploitation of trainees. This is WRONG)