As an outsider, this can be hard to understand: at the end of a lifetime of working, why would anybody want to undertake work that involves hard, physical labour at the bottom of the chain of command?
Workfare requires jobseekers to undertake "work experience" for up to 30 hours a week over four weeks.
Some may get to undertake work experience, such as horticulture, but most won't see any wages for it.
Students should be free to undertake work alongside their studies and given time to fill valuable roles in industry after graduation.
"One of the gap year's most undervalued advantages is the ability to undertake work placements outside of the over-subscribed holiday periods," says gap-year student Katherine Hodgson.
Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos Mori, said: "Client confidentiality prevents us from giving details of which companies have approached us to undertake work for them.
There is nothing wrong in principle with expecting the long term unemployed to undertake work experience or a more intensive job search.
We also commissioned Positive Steps, an independent charity, to undertake work with young people to target neet provision on a ward and school basis.
