You must understand your obligations if a student has approached you to complete a vocational placement at your organisation. Most vocational placements are unpaid, providing students with a valuable opportunity to apply the theory and skills they learned in a professional setting before beginning full-time work. With most vocational placements being unpaid, a number of requirements must be met to ensure the placement is lawful. This article will take you through the critical requirements of vocational placements.
As an employer, understand your essential employment obligations with this free LegalVision factsheet.
What is a Vocational Placement?
Some students must undertake work experience as part of their educational or training course. As such, a vocational placement allows students to gain exposure to situations that arise in the industry. For example, nursing students are required to complete minimum work experience to graduate. Additionally, engineering students must organise professional work experience placements to complete their studies.
‘Lawfully Unpaid’
The Fair Work Act allows for vocational placements to be unpaid roles. The reason is that the law does not consider students as employees, so the law does not entitle them to minimum wage or any other entitlements under the Fair Work Act.
Nevertheless, the vocational placement must meet the following four requirements to be lawfully unpaid.
1. The Placement
Firstly, there must be a placement where the student must undertake a particular work period. This means that a school or institution arranges the placement, or the student may contact businesses and initiate their placement. However, the placement must align with the student’s course requirements. Otherwise, the placement may not count towards their degree.
2. Requirement To Undertake the Placement
The educational or training institution must require the student to participate in the placement as part of their training. This could be a compulsory or an elective subject. Nevertheless, it must be a required component of their course to be considered a vocational placement.
Therefore, it is not suitable for a student to voluntarily undertake placement without any official requirement. Instead, this might be considered work experience, a separate form of agreement from a vocational placement. Ultimately, work experience placements are separate from vocational placements in terms of their entitlements.
3. Entitlement to Pay
One critical factor is that the student should not be entitled to payment for their placement. A contract between the student and workplace entitles the student to pay in return for the work they perform constitutes an employment relationship. Hence, it is no longer considered a vocational placement.
4. Approval
The student must study at a government-approved institution. This could include courses offered at universities, TAFE colleges and schools.
If these four requirements are met, the host business or organisation is not required to pay the student. However, there is no prohibition or the host organisation to provide payment to the student if they choose to do so.
Significantly, even though the Fair Work Act does not provide entitlements to students on vocational placement, this does not absolve you as a host organisation from all responsibilities. You should be aware that other obligations may exist under other legislation, particularly anti-discrimination obligations and maintaining a safe working environment for your students.
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Key Takeaways
If your organisation plans to take on a student for their vocational placement, you must understand the Fair Work Act’s requirements. This means there must be:
- a placement;
- a requirement to undertake placement;
- no entitlement to payment for the placement; and
- a student studying at an approved and authorised institution.
If you need assistance understanding your obligations as the host organisation of student placements, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. You will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some students must undertake work experience as part of their educational or training course. Known as a vocational placement, this placement period allows students to work in a professional setting and gain exposure to situations that arise in the industry.
If your organisation plans to take on a student for their vocational placement, you must understand the Fair Work Act’s requirements. Accordingly, there must be a placement, a requirement to undertake a placement, the student should not be entitled to payment for their placement, and the student must be studying at an approved and authorised institution.
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