Unpaid on the job training leaving female-dominated professions behind

Advocates say having to do hundreds of hours of unpaid on the job training is "psychologically demoralising" and is leaving female-dominated professions decades behind the earnings of minimum wage workers.

To finish off their degree nurses, teachers, medical students, midwives and social workers must do supervised placements which can be kilometres from where they live.

But students say with the cost of living and rising fuel prices they are only just able to keep their heads above water.

Chelsea said she was in her second to last year of studying towards a Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Auckland.

To get her degree, over the next year and a half she would need to complete 120 days of unpaid on the job training.

But placement was in blocks of 40 hours a week, so trying to find part-time work to fit around these hours is difficult, she said.

"I used to be able to work, but on placement it's hard to work on a nine to five, five days a week situation."

Chelsea said she relied on her weekly $372 student allowance for all her expenses.

But with the rising cost of fuel, she told Checkpoint it was barely enough to get by.

She lived in a flat in Central Auckland and had to travel up to 15km each way to her placements in Ōtāhuhu, she said.

Once she had paid for groceries and electricity for the week, there was not much left over.

"I've been Afterpaying gas every week, my Afterpay is at $1000 right now, from afterpaying stuff I shouldn't have to."

Chelsea said she was considering following her mother to Australia after she finished studying, because of the better pay.

"My mum did support work here, practically minimum wage, she had certificates and everything."

"She moved to Australia and she's on $40 an hour, off the bat."

Anna, a part time student who lived rurally in Wellington was studying towards a teaching diploma at Massey University.

But she said being on an eight-week 40 hour a week placement came with added strain on her budget.

"My childcare costs went up; I've got two children and they both need to be in before and after school care during those placements."

"I was travelling about 20 minutes a day on those placements, but they did say you could be expected to travel up to an hour."

"I know of others doing the course who are travelling an hour each way to get to their placements."

Research from the University of Canterbury said doing unpaid placements meant more time spent out of the workforce and accumulating more debt.

In Aotearoa, it took more than eight years since starting study for a nurse and up to 12 years for a social worker to have higher earnings than someone on the minimum wage during that time, the research showed.

University of Auckland social work Professor Liz Beddoe said although the issue was not a new problem, there was even more financial pressure now with rising fuel prices.

"A lot of students are working on weekends, they're working shifts sometimes in residential care settings and they're in danger of getting exhausted, ill and burnt out."

"It's because they're actually just doing too much and they don't have much time for themselves, for a life."

The Social Worker Registration Board had decided to shorten the length of the Bachelor of Social Work from four years to three years because of student hardship, she said.

"But my research has shown that students don't complain about the length of the degree, they appreciate the time they spend on placement and the time that goes into their education."

"What [the students] all talked about to us about was the cost of placement and the challenge of trying to survive."

Paid Placements Aotearoa Campaign Lead Bex Howells said unpaid placements should not be a rite of passage for professions on the frontline.

"If you train as a police officer, an apprentice or in the military, you'd be paid to train without question. But if you want to be a nurse, teacher, social worker or a mental health professional, you have to pay to train.

"And we wonder why people can't make it through training, why the dropout rates are as high as 50 percent and the consequences that members of the public are waiting 12 hours in the emergency room or can't see a mental health professional."

Having to work and not being paid, on top of working late night and weekend shifts in other jobs takes its toll on students' mental health, she said.

"It's psychologically demoralising to be working for nothing."

"A lot of these students are working with people who are in crisis, they're working to bring babies into the world, or working with medical emergencies so there's huge physiological pressure, they're still learning."

"Then they're still [thinking] I don't know how I'm going to pay rent this week, I don't know if I can afford food or whether I'm going to have to go to the foodbank, I can't afford medication, I can't afford heating, I can't afford to get to placement."

The Ministry of Education makes decisions about student allowances and support.

It told Checkpoint there were financial assistance schemes available that provide bursaries or employment while they complete their training for students and teachers.

These had to be applied for, and the level of support differed depending on the scheme.

Health Minister Simeon Brown said this year mileage rates increased by 30 percent for home and community support workers and for patients who need to travel to receive specialist care.

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