‘I Had to Take a Casual Contract and Work One Day a Week’: Students’ Experiences of Lengthy University Placements as Drivers of Precarity

Abstract

University students are increasingly required to undertake lengthy unpaid placements, and for many students this needs to be balanced with the paid work they already do. The literature about internships has focused on whether internships help students get jobs post-graduation, or if placements are exploitative, given pay is minimal or non-existent. This article contributes to this literature by examining how placements affect students’ current paid employment. Vosko’s framework, published in 2010, which identifies the precarious features of the employment relationship and interrogates the social context and location of this employment, is drawn on here. The article is based on a quantitative and qualitative survey of social work students at an Australian university, who need to complete a lengthy placement. The argument made here is that the requirements of lengthy placements restrict the conditions in which students can engage in the workforce and by doing so increase the precarity of their workforce participation.

“My Anxiety Was Through the Roof”: The Gendered Nature of Financial Stress and Its Impact on Mental Health and Well-Being for Women When Undertaking Social Work Placements

“…Our findings suggest that the financial cost of completing a field education placement for women contributes to poor physical and mental health and changes “the terms in which students participate in the workforce” (Oke et al, 2023) including having to stop paid work because of placement. This is antithetical to the AASW Code of Ethics , which outlines that it is informed by principles of human dignity and worth, social justice, and fairness, including the goals of enhancing people's individual and collective well-being, social development, and addressing systemic barriers to full recognition and participation (AASW, 2020).…”

“…Our research and teaching are shaped by a commitment to disrupting oppressive structures, and valuing lived experience knowledge (Moran et al, 2022). Employment is an economic necessity for most students (Brough et al, 2015; Hemy et al, 2016; Oke et al, 2023). As gender powerfully mediates people's potential to participate in paid work or accumulate capital, when women have reduced opportunities to participate in paid work or accumulate capital in their own right, their class position is mediated by, and cannot be separated from, their gendered family relations (O’Dwyer, 2021).…”

“…Significantly, this historical model of field education continues today despite being proven to only benefit those with economic means (Aguilera et al, 2022). Oke and colleagues (2023) point out this is not dissimilar to social work's “placement programme in the United Kingdom where students are required to complete 200 days, including 30 ‘skills days’” (p. 1667), as is the case for social work, many other university courses that have long placements and are heavily populated by women, for example, nursing or occupational therapy (Oke et al, 2023, p. 1667). In this way, constructions of gender and class are integral to the social work profession, where women tend to be paid less and have more restricted opportunities than men (Oke et al, 2023).…”