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Section C The current use of part-time employment
Chapter Nine the use of part-time work in school settings - the pupils' perspective.
In Section B we asked a range of school staff about the extent to which they currently draw upon school pupils part-time employment experiences within classes. In this section we consider the same issue from the perspective of the pupils.
In the focus group discussions with pupils one of the issues raised was whether they had been asked about part-time employment in the context of their classes. For example had they ever been asked to use this experience in a class setting.
A total of 47 focus groups were held involving 376 school pupils. The focus groups were structured to reflect school stage (S4, S5 and S6) and work status (Ever Worked n=260; Never Worked n=116). In each school six focus groups were planned, two for each year group where one consisted of Ever Worked pupils and the other pupils who had Never Worked. In one school we were unable to run a focus group for S6 Never Worked pupils.
The plan was that all focus groups were to be recorded. A total of 42 usable recordings were produced. The material in this section draws on these recordings.
Use of Part-time work in school
The focus groups covered a range of issues with pupils (eg see Section A). One of these was the extent to which teachers mentioned part-time work in their classes and encouraged them to draw on this experience in any way. Pupils were asked if they had the opportunity to use their part-time work experience in classes such as in group discussions, written work, assignments, presentations or assessments. The focus groups also discussed the extent to which other teachers, out with subject classes, used their experiences in part-time work such as guidance teachers and if any career advisers from Careers Scotland discussed their part-time work when considering their future plans.
We consider the pupils comments under three headings, use of part-time work:
- in academic classes
- in PSE or guidance context
- by Careers Scotland staff
The use of part-time work in academic classes
In 41 of the focus groups the issue of the use of part-time work in class settings was asked. In a total of 13 (32%) of the focus groups at least one pupil in the group indicated that part-time work had been mentioned by teachers in a class. However, in the majority of the groups (68%) none of the pupils said that teachers had mentioned part-time work in classes.
Where the pupils had responded positively indicating that teachers had mentioned part-time work in classes further questions were asked about which subject classes this issue had been raised in. The examples provided included languages, geography, modern studies, accounts, administration and business management. Social education was also mentioned, however we have considered this under the PSE heading which is dealt with in a separate section.
Based on the pupils comments it is clear that the references to part-time work within academic classes is often a means of relating pupils part-time work to some business context such as:
'Uh-huh, I do business management and we're always talking about...well, we're always bringing in part-time work to it, to relate it kind of thing.'
In some cases part-time work experience is drawn upon for written assignments for example in English:
'In English we had to write about and do a talk and whether you liked it or not.'
For a sizeable minority of the focus groups there is some evidence that part-time employment is drawn into some class discussions and assignments.
However, two caveats should be raised about this data. First, in the case of those focus groups where there is support for the idea that part-time work has been used in classes this categorisation may be based on a solitary pupil providing an example. Second, when we note that pupils indicate that part-time employment has been discussed in class settings it should not be assumed that all such discussions were positive. For example, some pupils indicate that part-time work is mentioned by teachers in school but is used to highlight the negative side of work.
One pupil indicated that:
they [teachers] wrote about it in our report cards……they wrote like working and social life affecting school'
Another pupil said:
'they talk against it……we get lectures about not going out to get work.'
One pupil stated that:
'there was a teacher who asked us not to work, she would prefer us not to as we would have more time for schoolwork.'
However, another pupil in the same group challenged this pupil's view by saying:
'No, she didn't ask us not to cos they can't do that, but she said we should think carefully about it if we did [engage in part-time work].'
Use of part-time work in PSE or guidance context
We have grouped comments about the use of part-time work in PSE and guidance contexts together since pupils tended not to discriminate between these two activities.
The nature of focus groups means that there may be some variability between each one in terms of the direction of the discussion and its content. In 38 of the 42 focus groups the issue of using part-time work in guidance and PSE setting was asked. Within these 38 groups 22 (58%) mentioned that part-time work had been referred to or used in a guidance context.
Typically teachers referred to part-time work in the context of application forms, CV's and personal statements. For example:
'In PSE sometimes……like when we're practising filling out job applications and stuff like that, they've been asking you whether you've got a job.'
However for some pupils references to work would often be more concerned with finding a full-time job once the person had left school:
'It was more about how to get a job rather than if you've got one.'
One pupil commented:
'Yes they do bring it [part-time work] in, it just depends on what you want to do after university or whatever, they'll bring it up'.
Another pupil from the same focus group added comments about guidance teachers mentioning part-time work:
'that's kind of their job though, to bring it up'.
Once again it was evident that in this context some negative comments were made about part-time work. For example:
'Guidance does occasionally, like if you've come in and you're really tired they'll ask you why. There was someone in our English class that would come in and fall asleep cos he had so many jobs, so that got brought up in guidance.'
Use of part-time work by Careers Scotland staff
This issue was only raised in 10 of the 42 focus groups. In these 10 groups 5 (50%) indicated that the Careers Adviser did discuss their part-time job in relation to their future plans. Little detail was forthcoming about what the Careers Advisers had said but some pupils mentioned that they included part-time employment in their personal statements.
Other pupils said that it had been a long time since their last meeting with a Careers Adviser. Some of the younger pupils responded that have had not yet seen a careers advisor, other pupils indicated that if they wanted to see one they had to arrange an appointment to see one.
It is clear that part-time work is not completely ignored by teachers and some mention it in a classroom situation. However, this tends to be quite and informal approach. Whether a teacher raises the topic of part-time work may be dependent on a number of factors. For example, some pupils commented that teachers knew they were working because they had served them when at work. Such experiences may heighten a teacher's awareness of their pupils out of school activities.
Discussing part-time work in class settings may also depend on the teachers own outlook on the relevance of part-time work to what they are teaching in general or on a particular part of a course. Subjects such as business studies/administration may attempt to provide relevance to what they are teaching by relating it to their pupils' real world experience.
A more common result was for part-time work to be mentioned in a guidance or PSE context. However, we should not assume that the discussion of part-time work is always positive even in this context.
Across the focus groups there are examples of part-time employment being used in academic classes. However, where this occurs it is clearly very informal in nature. A more coherent approach seems to emerge in the context of PSE and guidance. However, even here the picture is not consistent.
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