New report on student workers and ‘earning while learning’ released

Not only are student workers important to the economy, but working while in education has positive and negative effects on students, says a new report released today.

Professor Kate Hardy and Dr Mia Zhong from the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change worked together with colleagues at the school of Sociology and Social Policy, Manchester University and City St George University on this multi-year project on young women’s working lives. The ESRC-funded national study and the experiences of student workers aged 14-23 years old, including: 

The tailored briefings are targeted at the Education Sector, Employers and Industry, and Trade Union, and present a number of pressing findings about the nature and prevalence of student employment.

• Young women are 50% more likely than their male counterparts to participate in paid work during their studies. As such, supporting student workers may be an equality duty for educational institutions 

• Pay for student workers is low, often below national minimum wage levels for their age 

• Work patterns very between students, with some working long or inconvenient hours 

• Combining work and studying can result in negative outcomes, especially related to working hours, including anxiety and burnout 

• Student workers often feel powerless in the workplace and sometimes unsafe 

• Sexual harassment at work is widespread for young women 

• Students lack knowledge of rights or legal pay rates or feel unable to assert their rights. 

‘It’s really difficult because a lot of jobs you’re getting quite exploited, it’s kind of difficult to try and get change or … like say anything about it really, because employers don’t really care’

The study’s principal investigator, Professor Kim Allen, said: “Student work is not new. However, as the costs of living continue to rise, young people are increasingly having to support themselves – and oftentimes their family – through part time jobs. These jobs offer a range of benefits, but they also present challenges, and our research shows that students are not only poorly paid, but often feel unsafe and powerless in the workplace. We urge educational institutions, employers and unions to work together to improve the conditions of student work and support young people to engage in meaningful, decent and fair work”. “People often think of student work as informal or short-term, but that is not the reality of student work. Students often work hours - like evenings and weekends - that are hard to fill, and regularly are with the same employer for more than a year. Students are very important to employers, and in some sectors they make up over 20% of the workforce.”

The briefings can be found on the project website https://ywworking.co.uk/briefings/ and the reports will be presented a webinar on June 3rd: https://earningwhilelearning.eventbrite.com