Vermin or valued pre-animators?

Here at Evil Towers Animation (not our real name and if one exists of this name, I apologize and will edit this later at your request), we seem to be getting more and more requests from students at various levels of competence and from all quarters of the world, cutting and pasting their tutors words into a generic email designed to flatter and coerce the receiver into thinking they've contacted you and only you because your previous body of work has impressed them so much they could do no more than try to gain work experience of some sort under your expert guidance.

Now, I'm not averse to this tactic. Not at all. I employ it myself from time to time to try to bring new business in. What I'm concerned about is the lack of imagination on the part of the tutors. They obviously don't really care what happens to their charges once they have left their care. I'm also probably more concerned about the volumes of potential applicants. We don't have an intern program here at ETA or take on work experience, mostly because we just aren't big enough yet and the only practical experience they would get is listening to us drone on about the time we nearly met Michael Palin at a party and did you watch X Factor last night, what is with that Wagner guy...blah blah blah...I've forgotten my point...

I'm not even sure I had a point. Maybe I just wanted a rant. How do others deal with the intern and work experience requests?

Should something be done about it? I don't mean culling them...although...no, it would be unethical and they're not really free-range anyway and so selling the carcass on would be difficult...I've forgotten my point again...

Oh yes, perhaps some someone could enlighten me on how you deal with them. Do we need a further education year, sort of thing, where those with actual talent, can gain real-world experience (at cut-price rates to the employer)? A talent hot-house, if you will. A greenhouse for pre-animators for gaining actual work experience, rather than changing the toilet roll and running out to get coffees just to punctuate the uncomfortable silences in the studio as Spotify goes into another advert...I've forgotten my point again.

If someone could also find my point, I'd me most grateful. Thank you.