'Own Transport Preferred': Potential problems with long-term volunteering and internships

This paper introduces the concept of volunteering in the hospitality industry. Used to great success in other industries, volunteering is almost unheard of in hospitality and this paper argues that substantial benefits might accrue to not only the volunteer, through the development of skills and knowledge, but also to the hospitality industry, through the identification of quality and committed employees. The paper defines volunteering and presents an indication of the extent of volunteering in the UK. Thereafter, the paper examines contemporary motivations to volunteer and discusses the potential benefits of the creation of a structured volunteering scheme for the hospitality industry.

New Zealand Association for Cooperative Education 2018 Conference Proceedings, 2018

Recently, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has focused on the linking of employability outcomes with the engagement with tertiary education. Such governmental-level focus on employability is mirrored internationally and prompted considerable research activity in employability skills, transferable skills, and employability outcomes (Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017). In response, universities are actively mapping their curricular learning activities to employability skills with the assumption that employability skills results in better employability outcomes (Bates & Hayes, 2017; Jackson, 2013; Kaider, Hains-Wesson, & Young, 2017). Many universities internationally (and in New Zealand) are identifying work-integrated learning (WIL) as a valuable pathway of directly linking learning with employability skills and employability outcomes (Jackson, 2013, 2015). Several years ago, the University of Waikato commenced a major curricular review and redesign – the first year of rollout of the new curriculum occurred at the start of 2018. As part of the new curricular framework, all students enrolled in an undergraduate degree must complete at least one paper/course (15pt credits out of either a 360 or 480 credit degree) in work-integrated learning. The University of Waikato is the first New Zealand university to make this compulsory for all undergraduate students. Other New Zealand universities are making similar moves and there are international examples already in place such as University of Cincinnati (Cedercreutz et al., 2017) and Macquarie University (Clark, 2017). With the University of Waikato’s increased focus on employability and curricular redesign, the question arose of what competencies science and engineering employers perceive as important graduates entering the workplace. Such information would inform the curricular design of the science and engineering degrees. In 2002, such study was completed by Coll, Zegwaard, and Hodges (2002) and helped to inform the science and technology curriculum design (Coll & Zegwaard, 2006). This study was useful in informing science and engineering curriculum and allowed for the development of a work performance assessment framework (Zegwaard, Coll, & Hodges, 2003). However, this study was completed 16 years ago and science and engineering employers’ perceptions may since have shifted. Presented here is a study which (re)investigated graduate competencies desired by New Zealand science and engineering employers. These employers were asked to rate the importance of 26 competencies for science and engineering graduates entering the workplace today and in 10 years’ time. The research also asked how well graduates are currently performing at each of these competencies, where the difference between expectation (importance) and performance indicates the skill-gap of current graduates. Comparisons with the findings here are done with the findings from Coll et al. (2002) study.

TripleC, 2015

This article explores the practices of recently formed and mainly UK-based art workers’ collectives against unpaid internships and abusive work. The modes through which these collectives perform resistance involve activist tactics of boycotting, site-specific protests, counter-guides, and whistleblowing and name and shame approaches mixed with performance art and playful interventions. Grappling with the predicaments of work in contemporary art, a labouring practice that does not follow typical processes of valorization and has a contingent object and an extremely loose territorial unity, this article argues that while the identity of the contemporary artist is systemically and conceptually moving towards fluidity and open-endedness, these groups work to re-affirm a collective in whose name it is possible to advance certain claims, assumptions, and demands. The contradictions and dynamics of art workers organizing against internships and voluntary work within a highly individualized, self-exploitative, and often privileged field are useful for informing labour organizing in the framework of ongoing capitalist restructuring.

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

The State of Museums: Confronting the State of Museum Salaries, 2019

Agriculture and Human Values, 2015

Recently, growing numbers of interns, apprentices, and volunteers are being recruited to work seasonally on ecologically oriented and organic farms across the global north. To date, there has been very little research examining these emergent forms of non-waged work. In this paper, we analyze the relationships between non-waged agricultural work and the economic circum- stances of small- to medium-size farms and the non-eco- nomic ambitions of farm operators. We do so through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of farmers’ responses to two surveys we conducted of farmers using non-waged workers in Ontario, Canada. We situate our analysis within debates on the agrarian question, which we contend requires an account for both the economic and non-eco- nomic dimensions of new forms of non-waged work on farms. We suggest that many ecologically oriented farm operators are struggling financially and report low gross on-farm revenues and personal incomes. We argue that in addition to relying on off-farm incomes and self-exploita- tion, many farms are managing to persist in a challenging economic climate through their use of intern, apprentice, and volunteer labor. However, we also suggest that the growth of non-waged work on farms is not simply being driven by economic processes but also a series of non- economic relationships focused on non-institutional farmer training, the pursuit of sustainability, and social movement building. We suggest, the ‘‘economic’’ and ‘‘non-eco- nomic’’ dimensions of internships, apprenticeships, and forms of volunteerism sit uneasily alongside of one another, generating questions about the politics, ethics, and sustainability of non-waged work and ecological farming.

2018

The LIS practical experience that LIS postgraduate students acquire before their course is a rare subject in the UK, which tend to be mentioned vaguely by researchers conducting studies in their own departments. Moreover, several studies focus on the positive aspects that LIS students get for doing internships or placements, such as increasing job prospects. Also, most of the research focusing on the motivations of LIS postgraduate students to be invovled in the LIS field and to do a LIS postgraduate degree had a qualitative approach and it has not focused in the UK. The aim of this dissertation is to quantify the type, sector and time spent acquiring LIS practical expereince of LIS postgraduate students before and during their course in the UK. Also, the student's views on the benefits, the barriers and the importance of getting LIS practical experience. Finally, this research aims to uncover whether having LIS practical experience before a postgraduate course can change the motivations to be involved in the LIS field or to do a MLIS. It was found more than half of the respondents had LIS practical expereince before their course and that working was favoured over volunteering, trainneships and internships. The most selected sectors were public and academic libraries. When acquiring LIS practical experience during their courses, students that carried on working through their course worked part or full time over nine months to a year. Internships or placements were chosen by students without experience before the course and by those that had previous LIS experience, but did not carry on working or volunteering. This group preferred acquiring experience between four to eight hours per week for a maximum of five months. LIS experience before the course did not influence significantly the motivations of LIS students in the UK to be involved in the LIS field. However, it appeared to influence more their motivations to do a LIS postgraduate course.