Costs and insurance

Costs involved with hosting a career-ready placement student

The University of Newcastle recognises the value of workplace learning experiences for its students and has developed policies to ensure placements comply with the Fair Work Act 2009.

The University considers workplace learning part of the curriculum. Career-ready placements can be either paid or unpaid. Including an offer of payment for your placement is a great way to increase competition for your opportunity and attract high performing applicants.

For unpaid career-ready placements, the main outlay cost for your host organisation would be the time and expertise of your staff to help guide and mentor the student to achieve your project outcomes. Additional costs vary depending on the nature of your project and the resources needed to achieve your goals.

If your organisation has an opportunity that needs to be filled quickly, is for a term not aligned with our work placement policy or is for a specific purpose not aligned to curriculum learning outcomes, your opportunity may be better considered as paid work. The Careers Service can help with advertising employment opportunities to our students.

Insurance for career-ready placements

The University has insurance to cover students undertaking professional experiences, including career-ready placements that are course requirements and unpaid. The placement must form part of the curriculum and be assessed by a course coordinator. The University may provide the host organisation with a copy of the University's certificate of currency for a relevant insurance policy.

For paid placements, Students are deemed to be employees of the host organisation and as such are entitled to coverage under the host organisation’s insurance policies. To learn more about insurance for workplace learning experiences, please read about the University's insurance.