[Oliver_W]

I can see what Dezzy's talking about; there's a little something called "transferable skills", which basically means experience from a previous job which can be used to help someone in their new position. And these skills aren't always from paid work.

I'll give a real life example - my first teaching assistant job. I'd been helping with scouts for a couple of years before, but had little to no paid work. Meanwhile another applicant had only ever worked in retail, and their only experience of working with kids was their own. Should the school have gone for the latter, because they had a reference from a shop?