Work experience for school pupils - Professional staff
The University accepts school pupils under the provisions of the Part 4A of the Education Act 1958 (Vic.). The intention of Part 4A of the Act is to enable pupils at school, or students at a TAFE college or a University with a TAFE division who are in a course which is, or is equivalent to, the eleventh or twelfth year of secondary education, to obtain work experience as part of their education.
Eligibility and conditions of employment
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible to apply for work experience within the University, students must
- be in a class the academic level of which is at least that of second year of secondary schooling; or
- be over 13 years of age (irrespective of his/her class level); and
- have the written consent of a parent.
Conditions of employment
The Education Act 1958 (Vic) requires that the employment of pupils pursuant to work experience arrangements shall be subject to the following conditions:
- A pupil shall not be employed for more than 40 days during any school year nor more than ten days during any school term;
- The university shall not at any time employ more than the permitted number of pupils (refer to 'Permitted number of work experience students' below);
- The period of employment in respect of any arrangement shall not exceed a total ten days; and
- the full period in respect of the employment shall be a period falling within the school year.
Arrangements
A work placement arrangement must be in writing and set out
- details of the accredited course of study; and
- the skills and competencies that the pupil is expected to obtain during the work placement;
- the total number of days or hours that the pupil will be employed by the employer;
- the period of employment under the work placement;
- the name of the employer or a person authorised by the employer to make work placement arrangements, the trading or operating name of the employer and the address of the work place where the pupil will be employed and
- be signed by the principal or head teacher of the pupil's school, the employer or a person authorised by the employer to make work placement arrangements, the pupil and, if the pupil is under the age of 18 years, the parent of the pupil.
An arrangement may be:
- varied or amended by a further arrangement; and
- cancelled at any time by notice in writing
- given by the employer to the principal or head teacher of the school; or
- given by the principal or the head teacher of the school to the employer.
Definitions
The following definitions are provided in the Act:
- "arrangement" means a work experience arrangement or a work placement arrangement
- "school" includes any State school and any school registered under Part III of the Act
- "school year", in respect of any school, means that portion of the year beginning with the first school day of that year and ending with the last school day of that year.
Payment
A pupil is entitled to receive $5.00 per day or part thereof. With the written consent of a parent, which may be included in the arrangement, the pupil may donate the payment back to the University.
Permitted number of work experience students
Under the Education Regulations 1988 the permitted number of work experience students that an employer may employ at any time in any school term must be determined as follows:
- In relation to the full-time employees employed by the employer-
- for every three full-time employees he or she may employ one work experience student; and
- for any remaining number of full-time employees he or she may employ one work experience student;
In relation to regularly employed part-time employees employed by the employer; he or she may employ work experience students in accordance with the following formula:
X - 3Y = Z
- where X is the aggregate number of hours worked per week by the part-time employees; and
- Y is the number of work experience students that the employer is permitted to employ in relation to the part-time employees; and
- the result is rounded off to the lower whole number.
Appointment procedures
Enquiries from careers advisers, students or parents for work experience are to be referred to Administrative Units.
Administrative Units will be responsible for deciding whether to provide opportunities for students and for making all arrangements.
The Administrative Unit is to authorise payment to a pupil by petty cash voucher. The costing is to be allocated to the relevant fund centre and cost centre
For Administrative Units which do not have a petty cash system, a central collection point will be designated on each campus as follows:
- Clayton Campus - Student Service Centre - Building 10 Campus Centre
- Gippsland - Student Service Centre - at main reception
Additional information may be obtained from Monash HR.
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