VUWSA Launches Paid Placements Campaign
/Te Aka Tauira – Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA) is proud to launch our Paid Placements campaign. VUWSA supports the introduction of paid placements for students in nursing, teaching, medicine, midwifery, and social work. These students undertake essential frontline work in their compulsory placements while also facing significant financial hardship, mounting debt, and increasing pressure to leave their studies altogether.
Across Aotearoa New Zealand, students in these professions complete hundreds and often thousands of unpaid placement hours. Nursing students complete over 1,100 hours, social work students around 960 hours, teaching students up to 120 days, and midwifery students more than 2,400 hours of unpaid clinical placement.(1) By comparison, police officers who undertake their 20 weeks of training can expect to earn an annual salary of $59,906 NZD, with government contributions to superannuation and insurance increasing the total remuneration package to $66,215 NZD.(2) Apprentices in trades are also paid as they train, earning a training wage ($19.16 NZD). (3)
These placements are not optional. They are required to graduate and enter professions that this country desperately needs. Yet students are often expected to give up paid work, travel long distances, relocate temporarily, and work full-time hours for no pay while still covering rent, transport, food, and course costs. Research conducted by Dr. Leighton Watson from the University of Canterbury found that financial hardship caused by unpaid placements contributes to major dropout rates, including approximately 40 percent in social work and 37 percent in midwifery programmes.(4) By comparison, the Police dropout rate is about 2%.(5)
This is a workforce issue as much as it is a student issue. “Aotearoa continues to face shortages in healthcare, education, and social services” says VUWSA Campaigns Officer Lewis Collins. “If we want to retain future nurses, teachers, doctors, midwives, and social workers, we must make these pathways financially viable”. We need to retain our graduates to grow our workforce and improve our future.
Paid placements are an investment in the future workforce of Aotearoa New Zealand. They would reduce financial stress, improve student retention, widen access for students from working-class backgrounds, and help address long-term staffing shortages in critical public services. A recent New Zealand Nurses Organisation student survey found that nearly two-thirds of nursing students regularly struggled to cover basic living costs, more than a third faced over $2,000 annually in placement-related expenses, and most were forced to significantly cut back their paid work while on clinical placement.(6) Students should not be pushed into poverty simply for training in professions that keep our communities functioning.
This campaign is inspired by the hard mahi of Bex Howells, campaign lead for Paid Placements Aotearoa. We would not be able to run this campaign without her immense dedication to her advocacy and research around paid placements.
VUWSA believes no student should have to choose between completing their qualifications and being able to afford groceries or rent.
Our key asks:
Commitment to Introducing Paid Placements
VUWSA calls on all the Government and opposition parties to commit to introducing a universal paid placement system for nursing, teaching, medicine, midwifery, and social work students. No student should be forced into financial hardship while completing compulsory frontline work.
Provide Immediate Cost-of-Living Support for Placement Students
The Government must urgently expand financial support for students on placement through accommodation assistance, transport support, and increased access to living-cost payments while a full paid placement scheme is developed.
Invest in the Future Workforce of Aotearoa New Zealand
Paid placements must be recognised as an investment in retaining future nurses, teachers, doctors, midwives, and social workers. Supporting students now will help reduce dropout rates and address long-term workforce shortages in essential public services.
Follow us on @students4paidplacements on Instagram and keep an eye on our website for information on our upcoming actions.
Keen to get involved? Have any pātai? Email campaigns@vuwsa.org.nz
1 - https://www.paidplacementsaotearoa.org/challenge
2 - https://www.newcops.govt.nz/about-the-job/pay-benefits
3 - https://www.employment.govt.nz/pay-and-hours/pay-and-wages/minimum-wage/minimum-wage-rates-and-types
4 - https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news-and-events/news/2025/unpaid-placements-strain-trainee-professionals--new-nz-study
5 - Ibid
6 - https://www.nzno.org.nz/Portals/0/publications/Report%20%20National%20Nursing%20Student%20Survey,%202025.pdf
