Summer holiday from Uni - where are the jobs?

[MrsClattenburg]

DS is now back from Uni for the (ridiculously long) summer holiday so will be back living here May-Sept.

He's trying to find a job and started looking before he came back home but hasn't been successful with any of his applications so far. Listening to Jeremy Vine discussing this now and it's so depressing... loads of people applying for just one job and so understandably, why would a business then want someone back from Uni for 4 months rather than someone who won't leave after the summer?

If your 18+ year olds have summer jobs, where are they working?

Mine has done two summers as agency staff for Royal Mail. Not sure if he’ll manage to get back in this year though.

God its hard. My dd in her dads office. She has enough of intern and unpaid as she doing vetenary. So needs money. Hard out there its who you know. She did sports camp two years ago. Got that through her friend who knew teacher running it. Months work. Her dads is around 12 wks

My daughter is volunteering with the nation-wide summer reading challenge at the library as she intends to eventually do a doctorate in educational psychology and needs "relevant work experience".

Firstly, you don't need to tell them you are only staying for 3 months.
Secondly, the sort of jobs we are talking about don't generally need a lot of training.
Thirdly - and this is key - lots of places need holiday cover.

More widely than factories, there are lots of places where the jobs are only there for the Summer.

Temp agencies, stadiums and sports events (car park stewards etc) and pubs

Both of mine did sports camps - they had cricket coaching badges and DBS, which helped.

Try Royal Mail! Look at their job site and temporary jobs via their agency

Interesting article from the Centre for Social Justice:

"The number of payrolled employees under 25-years-old has plummeted by 119,000 since June 2024, meaning there are now 97,000 fewer workers under 25 on payroll than there were over half a decade ago.

Meanwhile, employers have increasingly turned to migrant workers to fill roles: the number of payrolled non-EU workers under 25-years-old soared by 315 per cent between January 2020 and December 2024, with growth highest in the sectors that would usually employ young British workers with fewer qualifications."

https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/wasted-youth

Packing and production line work generally doesn't need training. I've worked in factories packing promotional items and gifts / food products. I know of local factories that still take people on for similar casual work locally, and I live in a very small town. I'm not going to name the companies but some are multinational (not household names) while others are local.

@BitterTits I’d be hard pressed to think of one here. Not in the mid size town either but what is there, doesn’t have seasonal vacancies. They don’t want 3 month employees.

A local boutique didnt want her for 3 mths as back to college. Hard out there. Would anyone do dog walking its always needed

Dd works in a bar…. She’s really lucky that they pretty much let her work full time (or as much as she wants) when she’s back. She’s also done them a occasional favour and come back for the weekend to help them out on St Pats, she pretty much worked the whole weekend for them.

My ds had a couple of summer jobs - one working for a marquee company they were obviously busier in the summer with events so that worked well . Another one that made me laugh was working with a landlord doing odd jobs at the end of tenancies , he had never done any DIY at home so goodness knows how he talked his way into that one .

Provided she doesn't have a criminal record, I'll find her a job in care this afternoon.

At a local children’s SEND play scheme as a team leader, this is the 4th summer she has worked there. Also has picked up several individual clients from there to work with as a PA helping them access the community. She starts her first teaching role in a SEND school in September so it has all been great experience while she studied and did her PGCE.

Warner holidays employ students

We're desperate for reliable gardeners round here. If he can cut grass and do weeding, I reckon that might be an option? Guy here started that way and didn't have his own equipment. Most people have a lawnmower.

I paid a young person £££ to do car detailing. He came over with his stuff, valeted the inside, cleaned and polished the outside and he was £20 cheaper than the more established detailing places. He did have professional equipment he'd invested in. People will pay for services like this, especially if he's cheaper than more established firms.

When I was younger, I got temp work via job agencies. I signed up to a few and got work in factories, industrial laundries, credit control in call centres etc.

I'd be annoyed at paying for two hours contact time a week. However, I don't know of any courses in my field that offer so little. A four week break is not feasible.
I don't finish teaching one of my courses until next week. I teach on a couple of different degrees and they offer 3 hrs/day for 4 days/week and students complain that it's too much!
Not all students pass first time. June/July is mainly taken up with resits, marking and exam boards. This could be mitigated quite a lot if students actually turned up to lectures and did the additional reading. The minority who take the piss generate a disproportionate amount of additional work.
A level results come out in August and clearing starts.
I get 7 weeks holiday/year and it's almost impossible to take because of the workload.

@billycat321 Go to Buckingham then! Fees are more more obviously! The staff there don’t get the holidays but it’s low down the rankings. There is a reason for that!

Dd worked from 16 in M and S on a 12 hour contract...transferred to a branch in University Town for 3 years and also worked summer and Xmas

Bar work at the many festivals around the country. They can check online for agencies who recruit young people for this work.

@Fraughtmum But that was years ago! Now it’s entirely different. Parents want dc to work and it’s making far more dc want the opportunities. This is because the student loans haven’t increased with cost of living and parents are expected to contribute more, but many cannot or won’t. Ditto in the uni cities. I rarely see younger folk in many shops now. Costs are tightly controlled.

7 years ago.

Do you have any local attractions? I mean, they would have been recruiting in March/April for the summer, but my kids always got seasonal visitor host work. Also sign on to event agencies (eg Brightsparks)