Pay on placement ?

[higgle]

DS2 is doing a fashion degree. He is very responsible with money and does get some work in his holidays but has not been very proactive in finding the very part time job we hoped he would get at uni, just to ensure he had a bit of a buffer each term. We send him £375 per month on top of his loan (minimum level) , and he is just about getting by.

The year after the next academic year he will be off on placement and is hoping to find something with a leading fashion company. We had assumed he would be paid for this but he tells us that is not likely and that he is going to have to live in London for the year. DS1 lives in London ( shared flat so he can't help) so we know how expensive it is. Quite frankly I couldn't find another £600 a month to keep him there.
Has anyone else experienced this problem - is there any possibility his loan might be continued if he doesn't get paid? Is he being pessimistic in not expecting remuneration? Or had I just better start drastic economy measures now......

My dd managed to get a paid internship but before she did she worked in a fashion house for a couple of weeks just for experience, the interns there were non paid and the same in a make-up marketing place, apparently these internships are so desired, the young people are prepared to take them unpaid in the hope they get a job in that particular industry later.

He may be taking your capabilities of supporting him a tad too far?

Hope all turns out well, I feel your pain.

The thing is higgle, I forgot to mention, we do live in London so that's a bonus. I think your ds will just have to look for paid if he's hoping to pay rent in London.

Is this a compulsory part of the course, like the old sandwich courses? If so, he should be paid for the duration. They can't make "spend a year at a fashion house unpaid" a compulsory part of the course as there will be students who can't do that.

He should get a loan? With a London weighting. Ring student finance.

Yes, PPS of course there are students who can't do that. But the fact is, there are students who can and do. My dd met loads of them while doing unpaid stuff while searching for a paid one, and we live in London!

I don't think student finance will sympathise, you cut your purse according to your cloth or how that old adage goes.

I'm a single parent, dd got 100 pounds from me a month, that's all I can manage while at Uni, she worked most of her weekends to subsidise herself, she simply had to :(. She gets student finance, but not while doing her internship.

And no I'm not crying single poor parent, I'm saying to dd, here is what I can do, the rest you need to do yourself. If I could give her more I would but its impossible. She's great and she's happy. I've been able to have her home for this year, while she earns a bit, I haven't taken a penny off her so she can pay off the loan or save for next year. I can just manage that. :)

You can get your maintenance loan during a placement year. Some info here:

www1.aston.ac.uk/current-students/hub/money/undergraduate-finance/placements-and-money/

well, if he can get a maintenance loan then it is a start, in fact if that is the case then we should be able to cope. He will have to get a p/t job and then DH and I will have to chip in for the rest, I suppose. A friend of ours is lecturer on a hotel management course where the undergraduates go off on placement for a year, but most of them seem to be quite well paid for it. DS is enjoying his course very much and he works very hard but he has noticed he is one of only 2 boys and most of the girls seem to come from very affluent backgrounds. I suppose if the employers can have their pick of beautiful and accomplished people who will work for nothing because their families can afford to support them my chap will have to up his game a bit and find something lucrative to do this summer to set himself up in advance. DH is 60 next year and we were hoping that the years of going without holidays and living on lentils to finance the children were over!

Its a bit grim though higgle it seems really unfair to have to work for nothing.

DD2 is on a paid placement but one of her friends is doing an unpaid one (psychology). It just seems to depend on the area they want to work in.

Monty27 DD2's placement is reasonably well paid but she is still getting some money from student finance. She isn't living at home though.