Until recently, the focus of most high-end charity auctions was luxury: a day’s pheasant shooting (castle accommodation included) perhaps, or entry to a top pro-am golf tournament. Last year though, something went under the hammer at an event organised by Pilotlight that offered a different kind of exclusive opportunity: two weeks’ unpaid work experience at Harvey Nichols. The winning bid was £2,500.

It wasn’t a one-off. Last Monday, six different one-week placements were auctioned at a Tory party fundraising evening. Bids reached £3,700 for work experience at Condé Nast, £3,000 for a spell at Ecosse Films, £2,500 to work at a contemporary art dealer, £1,300 at the catering company Rhubarb, £1,250 for a spell with the PR and photographic agency M+M management, and £1,100 for a placement at the financial consultancy Pelham Bell Pottinger.

“Bidders,” a Tory spokesman says, “were buying the experience not necessarily just for their children but also as gifts for the wider family and even friends.” There’s no official breakdown on who the buyers were, or whether they bought these prizes for relatives, or to give away in acts of philanthropy, but by paying for placements it’s fair to say that they purchased an opportunity for someone’s future academic or career success.

It’s a development that alarms Lis Howell, deputy head of the journalism department at City University London. “We organise placements for students with companies and it’s usually a win-win situation. The idea that the students have to pay to do it is unethical.” If it carries on, she says, it will lead to the sort of discrimination that hasn’t been seen for decades. “It’s going back 30 years to the time when you could be a lawyer only if you could afford to be indentured. It’s a very retrograde step.”

Dr Paul Redmond, head of careers and employability at the University of Liverpool who has made a study of work experience for his book The Graduate Jobs Handbook, thinks that the paid-for placement will be a growing trend. In industries such as media, fashion and design, he explains, it’s always been the case that some students have worked for free. You could argue that charity auction organisers are taking the process to its logical conclusion, attaching a price tag to something that has been going on informally behind the scenes for years...>> Read More

Source: The Times Online
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article7025668.ece