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Section A Pupil focus groups

Chapter Two Pupils' views on part-time employment

Within each focus group pupils were provided with a workbook (Appendix I) to allow them to record their views and comments on the topics under discussion. In the following chapters we draw on this material to provide an insight into their views and comments on part-time work. Two specific set of comments are addressed. First, the pupils' comments on the advantages and disadvantages of having a part-time job while still attending school. Second, the views and comments on the three models that were discussed within the focus groups. However, we will start by providing some information on the structure and numbers involved in the focus groups.

In each school six focus group meetings with pupils were planned. Pupils were invited to participate in the focus groups based upon their responses to the main survey. The aim of the design was to carry out focus groups with pupils who had experience of part-time work (the Ever Worked Pupils or EWP group) and those who had never worked (the Never Worked Pupils or the NWP group). One EWP and one NWP focus group was carried out for each year group, S4, S5 and S6. The target number per focus group was 8-10 pupils. The final group size varied slightly from the planned numbers since it was not possible to complete a full profile for each school. For example in some schools there were no, or very few, S6 pupils who had never worked. In some cases attendance levels varied on the day of the focus groups impacting on the final size of pupil group.

Table 1 provides a summary of the number of pupils who participated in the focus groups based on the original allocation to either the EWP or NWP group.

Table 1: The number of pupils in EWP and NWP groups

As anticipated a number of pupils had changed their work status between the original survey and focus group studies. In the present context the particular concern is with those pupils who had been in the NWP group, that is never worked, but who had gained experience of part-time employment. To accommodate such changes the original classification was updated to reflect the actual experience of pupils. Table 2 provides a summary of the number of pupils in each category based on this update.

The primary focus of this section is to report pupil views on recognition based upon their experience of work and school year. It is therefore more appropriate to use the category groups identified in Table 2, the updated table, as the basis for this section. It is worth noting that the updated figures provide a close match to national work status figures for each year group as identified in the Final Report.

Table 2: Updated part-time work category: number of pupils in EWP and NWP groups

1. Advantages/Disadvantages of Part-time work

In each focus group pupils were asked to consider the possible benefits and costs of having a part-time job and to write their ideas down in the workbook. Typically pupils worked in pairs and focused on either the advantages or disadvantages, although some pupils provided information for both. It is worth noting that these ideas were generated by pupils before any discussion took place.

To summarise these comments a category system was generated. Initially two raters read a sample of workbooks and identified the main themes. Each rater produced a category system to capture these themes and after meeting the raters agreed a final set of categories.

Table 3: Categories of Advantages and Disadvantages of part-time work

Across all schools and school year groups a total of 376 pupils provided comments on the advantages/disadvantages of part-time work. The majority of pupils provided multiple suggestions. The table below indicates the most commonly cited advantages/disadvantages by providing the percentage of pupils who cited any specific reason.

When we consider the 'advantages' of work it is evident that the pupils in this research view the financial reward or the ability to earn their own money as a key advantage to working. However, it is worth noting that an equally popular advantage of work was that it contributed to personal attributes. As such pupils appear to perceive work as providing development opportunities, encouraging independence, responsibility and developing confidence.

Table 4: Pupils perceived advantages and disadvantages

Just under half of the pupils indicated that part-time work was advantageous in providing work experience and provides the opportunity to work with others. Approximately one in four pupils noted that one advantage of work was that it could be associated with the acquisition of skills. The potential contribution of part-time work to future careers or CV was identified by some pupils as a potential advantage, however, less than one-fifth of the pupils noted this as an advantage.

The most commonly noted 'disadvantages' of part-time work identified by pupils were that it could have a negative effect on schooling and would have a detrimental effect on the individual's social life. The next most popular disadvantages were related to the demands of employment. Pupils noted the physical demand of working or the time demands created when someone has a job.

A smaller percentage of pupils cited more specific work related disadvantages of part-time work. These fell into two categories: work related issues where the disadvantage of work was linked to poor treatment, low wages or practical aspects of work and interpersonal relations where the disadvantage of work was linked to problem relations with the people you might work with or customers.

The latter two disadvantages may suggest that pupils were drawing upon their personal experience of part-time employment when suggesting disadvantages of employment. This might suggest that the identification of advantages and disadvantages is associated with an individual's experience of part-time work. Similarly there may be variations associated with the age (year group) of the pupils. The next section explores the extent to which such variations exist.

Work Status

Focus groups were constructed on the basis of whether pupils had ever had part-time employment experience whilst at school or whether they had never worked. However, given the time gap between the original survey and the focus groups a number of pupils in the never worked group had changed status, that is they were either working or had worked in the intervening period. Based on this new information work status was updated. The net result was of the 376 focus group participants 260 were classified as Ever Worked ( EWP) and 116 as Never Worked ( NWP).

It could be hypothesised that pupils who have worked may emphasise different advantages or disadvantages of work compared to those pupils who have never worked. The tables below show the percentage of EWP and NWP who cited a specific advantage or disadvantage.

For example, amongst the advantages of having a part-time job money is cited by a similar percentage of the EWP and the NWP groups. It could be argued that this is a relatively 'obvious' benefit of employment and we would not expect having experience of working to increase this advantage of employment.

Table 5: Work Status and perceived advantages of part-time work

Based on this approach perhaps the notable aspect of the above table is the relatively low variation between EWP and NWP in citing any of the specific advantages of part-time employment. There is of course some variation between the groups. A higher percentage of EWPs cited 'working with others' as an advantage compared to the NWP group. Perhaps the experience of being employed resulted in them perceiving the value of this aspect of employment. This explanation may also account for the variation in the category of 'acquire skills'.

It could also be the case that the experience of employment may make individuals less likely to cite a specific advantage, that is they are aware of the limitations of their work. For example, the advantage of work in developing personal attributes was cited by a higher percentage of the NWP group. Perhaps a lower percentage of EWP group cited this as an advantage due to their experience of employment.

This argument might also lead us to hypothesise that EWPs will have an insight into the specific disadvantage of working. The pattern of results outlined in the table below does not support this position. The most striking aspect of the table is that a similar percentage of EWP and NWP identified each of the disadvantage categories.

Table 6: Work Status and perceived disadvantages of part-time work

Overall there is little evidence to suggest that work status had any major effect on the specific advantages or disadvantages that pupils associated with having a part-time job.

Year Group

In constructing the focus groups it was decided to separate pupils by year group. This resulted in a number of focus groups consisting of S4, S5 and S6 pupils. It is conceivable that pupils at different levels perceive different advantages or disadvantages. To consider this we looked at the number of pupils at each level and the specific advantages or disadvantages of work that they identified.

The table below summarises the findings for the proposed advantages associated with working. For each category of advantage the total number of pupils who identified this specific advantage is noted. The following columns note the percentage of pupils in S4, S5 and S6 who noted this advantage.

Table 7: Year group and perceived advantages of part-time work

For example the most cited advantage of part-time employment was the category money. From the table it is evident that the percentage of pupils in S4, S5 and S6 who identified this advantage was comparable, 35%, 35% and 30% respectively. A similar pattern of consistency across year groups is evident for a number of other advantages eg Careers/ CV, Work with others.

However there is some evidence of variation between year groups in some of the categories. It would appear that a greater number of S5 and S6 pupils noted the advantage of gaining 'personal attributes' from work. This pattern was replicated in the categories of 'work experience' and 'acquire skills' and might lead us to suggest that older pupils place more emphasis on different advantages of work when compared to younger pupils. S4 pupils recorded the highest number of citations in two categories, 'combats boredom' and 'other'.

Turning our attention to the disadvantages of working the pattern of consistency between year groups tends to dominate. The table below shows that for the disadvantages of 'impact on school', 'time demands' and 'impact on social life' similar numbers of pupils in each year group identified these disadvantages.

Table 8: Year group and perceived disadvantages of part-time work

Variation between the year groups does exist. For example when we look at pupils citing the 'demands' of work as a disadvantage a lower percentage of S4s listed this compared to S6 pupils. This pattern is reversed when we consider 'work related issues' where S6 pupils were less likely to have listed this disadvantage and S4 most likely to. This may reflect the variation in the types of jobs carried out by S4 and S6 pupils.

While the total number of pupils who cited 'interpersonal relations' as a disadvantage is low (N=19) it is notable that pupils listing this were more likely to be in S4 or S5. Given the low number of pupils this may reflect individual experiences and as such we should not read too much into this year group variation.

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