'Student slaves' denied millions by bosses

As youth unemployment reaches its highest level since 1993, employers are exploiting students by illegally offering them unpaid work experience, new research claims.

According to the survey by StudentGems.com, one in five young people still in education have worked illegally during the past year through no fault of their own. Of those who said they had worked unpaid in order to gain experience in their chosen career, the average position lasted 2 weeks, or 10 full working days.

The statistics come despite government regulations which mean that UK employers cannot offer unpaid work experience, unless they are doing it as part of a student's university or college course.

Based on the findings, the report calculated that 592,000 students have worked unpaid in the last 12 months and missed out on £214m in potential earnings.