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Chapter Three The main findings

Parents' experience of part-time work

We thought that parents' own experience of part-time employment while at school might influence their opinion of pupils working part-time and their views on its educational value and the desirability of linking it in some way to their schooling.

Almost three-quarters of parents responded that they themselves had worked part-time while at school (74%) and just under half had had more than one job (47%). Focusing on the type of job that they had worked in for the longest period in their time at secondary school, it emerged that retail accounted for the single biggest proportion of respondents: 45% had been employed in this sector (table 1). Most of the others had worked in catering, miscellaneous or delivery work (17%, 17% and 14%) with the remaining 7% having been employed as babysitters.

Table 1: Parents: type of part-time job when they were at school

* In this and subsequent tables where percentages sum to more than 100 this is due to rounding

The overwhelming majority of parents who had worked part-time when they had been at school were positive about the experience, 95% thought that it had been useful to them. However, a minority of them (17%) also re-called that working part-time while at school had caused them some difficulties.

Parents' opinion about mixing school and part-time work

We asked parents their views on whether or not pupils should have a part-time job while at school. Table 2 shows that the large majority of parents were in favour of young people working while still at school with 84% responding that they should. Parents whose children had ever worked were significantly more likely to be in favour compared to those whose children had never worked (table 2). However, it was noticeable that even amongst this latter group, the majority were in favour of pupils combining part-time work with school (74%). Whether or not parents themselves had had a part-time job while at school did not make a significant difference to their views on the desirability of pupils working part-time. Most parents did not think that pupils should be able to work in a paid part-time job before they were at least age 14 (87%). Two-thirds felt that 14 or 15 was an appropriate age at which pupils might start to work part-time.

Table 2: Parents views on desirability of part work by whether their child has ever had a part-time job

In line with this positive view of the desirability of part-time work, only a very small proportion of parents had discouraged their child from taking a part-time job while at school (7%, table 3). The majority had either encouraged their child to do so (58%) or had remained neutral about this (33%). Parents who themselves had worked when at school were more likely to have encouraged their child to have a part-time job while those who had never had a job were more inclined to be neutral when it came to advising their child about getting a part-time job. We examined whether there was any relationship between parents having worked part-time when they were at school and their child having a part-time job but the results were not significant.

Table 3: Whether parent encouraged or discouraged child from having a part-time job

Parents were asked to respond to a series of statements about part-time work to assess their views of the possible benefits and costs of part-time employment.

Their responses to the statements indicate that they ascribed a number of benefits to the part-time employment experience (table 4). These related, in particular, to the acquisition of additional skills, the development of self confidence and communication skills, and the development of certain positive attitudes. The overwhelming majority of parents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that pupils get the chance to learn skills not taught in school from their part-time work (95%). A similar proportion were of the view that part-time employment can increase pupils' confidence (96%), that it results in better communication skills (94%) and that through part-time employment pupils gain the opportunity to meet a range of people from different social backgrounds (95%). It is also clear that the majority of parents believe that part-time employment results in the development of good work attitudes and habits (91%) and encourages young people to respect others (88%). If one considers only the 'strongly agree' responses, it is notable that parents were most positive about the effect of part-time work in respect of increasing pupils' self confidence (45% strongly agree) and in providing the opportunity to learn skills not taught at school (35% strongly agree).

Whether or not their child had had a part-time job did not make any significant difference to their views in respect of these statements.

Table 4: Parents' opinion of pupils' part-time employment

A smaller percentage of parents agreed or strongly agreed with the idea that part-time employment provided opportunities to practice what has been learnt in school (56%). Just over a quarter disagreed with this (26%) and 17% indicated they were not sure. There was no significant difference in response based upon the work status of the parent's child.

A common view of part-time work is that it can impinge on pupils' school work and also on other out of school activities. What were parents' views on this? From their responses, it does not seem that parents were particularly concerned about this. The majority of parents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that pupils' school work suffers as a result of part-time work (66% disagree/strongly disagree, Table 4). However, there was a significant variation depending on whether the parent's child had ever had a part-time job: those parents whose child had never worked were more likely to agree with the statement that school work suffers while parents whose child had had a part-time job were more likely to disagree with this. Thus, parents who were able to comment on the basis of experience were less inclined to think that part-time employment had a negative effect on pupils' school work. Most parents did not think that part-time work meant that pupils would have less time for friends or for sports and hobbies (disagree/strongly disagree: 73% and 70% respectively, Table 4).

Most parents did not think that part-time work places too much pressure on pupils or creates a situation where they have to take on adult roles before they are ready for them (disagree/strongly disagree: 69% and 81% respectively, Table 4). But differences in parents' views were evident depending on whether the parent's child had had worked part-time. Parents whose child had ever had a part-time job were less likely to agree/strongly agree that part-time work pressurised pupils or enforced adult roles on them inappropriately. It is reasonable to assume that their views reflect their observation of the effect of part-time work in practice on their working child.

Parents whose children had not worked were more likely to view part-time employment negatively in respect of pressure and adult roles and their more negative views may help to explain why their children had never worked. Further analysis indicates that parents who thought that part-time work would adversely affect school work, put pupils under too much pressure or make them take on adult responsibilities before they are ready, were more likely to state that they discouraged their child from working part-time. But given the small number who stated that they discouraged their child from taking a part-time job, caution is required in drawing conclusions from this data.

Parents' attitudes to the increased use of part-time employment in schooling

Overall, parents' responses about part-time work were generally positive; we then asked them two more specific questions about the educational value of part-time employment and whether schools should make use of it.

Table 5: School pupils' part-time work has educational value

The majority of parents thought that school pupils' part-time work has educational value (77% agree or strongly agree, table 5). There were no significant differences depending on whether their child had ever had a part-time job nor did parents' own part-time work history make any difference to their response to this question.

When asked whether schools should make more use of pupils' experience of part-time work, parents were still positive in their response (65% agree or strongly agree, table 6) but less so than to the previous question about its educational value, and a higher proportion were unsure. Given the constraints of the survey, it was not possible to give parents explanations and practical examples of how schools might make use of pupils' part-time employment and this may well explain the higher number of 'not sure' responses to this question compared to the more general question about the educational value of part-time work. Again, there were no significant differences in parents' response depending on whether or not their child had had a part-time job or in relation to their own part-time working while at school.

Table 6: Schools should make use of pupils' experience of part-time work

Parents' views on formal recognition of pupils' part-time work

In the other elements of the Focus Studies, we asked pupils and teachers in the group work or interviews to give their opinion on a number of different approaches to the recognition of part-time work. As we noted above, we were limited in what we could cover with parents in the survey and so only included one question about recognition. This focussed on a more formal approach to recognition with the example given of the possibility of SQA certification. Their response to this question contrasted with their more positive responses to earlier questions about the educational value of part-time work and the idea that schools should make more use of it. In respect of recognition, parents were almost equally divided for and against the idea against the idea (45% strongly agree/agree; 40% strongly disagree/disagree). There were no significant differences depending on whether their child had had a part-time job. However, parents who had themselves had had a part-time job when at school were more inclined to favour formal recognition than parents who had never worked during their school career (56% vs 41% strongly/agree).

Table 7: Parents' opinion about the formal recognition of pupils' part-time work

Parents views on the effect of part-time work on their child

We have reported on parents' views about the possible benefits and disadvantages of part-time work in general. We now turn to those parents whose child had experience of part-time working and their judgement of the changes, if any, they thought had resulted from this employment. Table 8 shows that the large majority of parents of working children thought that their son or daughter had experienced some change as a result of working part-time. The ability to communicate with adults in a mature manner and greater self-confidence were the two aspects that parents were most positive about. 88% agreed or strongly agreed that their child's part-time job had taught him/her to communicate with adults in a mature manner (table 8). A similarly high proportion felt that their child's part-time job had led to greater self-confidence (84%). It is notable in both cases, the high percentage who responded that they strongly agreed with the statements, indicating that they felt that their child's job had had a considerable effect in these two respects.

Not unexpectedly, parents thought that part-time working had taught their child good work habits (84% agreed or strongly agreed, table 8). A high level of agreement with two other statements suggest that parents thought that part-time work had contributed to a more mature approach on the part of their child: 80% agreed or strongly agreed that part-time work had given their child a greater sense of purpose and that it had led to a greater appreciation of adult responsibilities while 74% thought that it had taught him/her to take more responsibility for their behaviour. Part-time work was perceived as improving their child's money management as well as their time management skills (77% and 76% agree/strongly agree, table 8). The aspect where parents felt that their child's part-time work had made least change was in respect of encouraging more serious planning for the future but even here 70% were positive about the effect of part-time work. Parents' assessment of the effect of part-time work on their child did not vary significantly depending on whether or not they themselves had had part-time employment during their time at secondary school.

Table 8: Parents' opinion of the changes in their child as a result of part-time work

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