To expect A level son to have weekend job

[Gomango]

My argument us that he does nothing college work wise over the weekend. Hanging out, being hungover, on gadgets. Refuses to get job til exams done. I eouldn't mind if he was revising or handing assignments in on time.

Emboo firstly I agree with you that a part time job can be a good thing. It really helped my confidence and taught me how to interact with adults. Plus many employers expect it. I insisted that my son did half a day a week work experience - unpaid - all through Year 12; that's how important I think it is.

I just don't agree with the conclusion that the change is effectively the fault of young people. I think it's a perfect storm of changing work patterns, zero hours contracts and increased pressure to get high grades. Plus a lack of confidence because the less you see your peers doing something, the scarier it becomes.

It concerns me.

Floisme
I dont recognise that situation from any of dc friends or my friends dc.
Zero hours contracts are perfect for dc, ds as a lifeguard could chosr when he eanted to work

My DD is in lower sixth. They have been told to do 3 hours work at home every day. She rows competitively, for example this week she is training at Eton Dorney and leaving home at 6.15am every day. She also trains or competes both Saturday and Sunday. DH thinks she should get a job but I don't honestly know where she'd fit that in too. She does very occasional cat sitting for our neighbours' cat or baby sitting, I think that's enough. She doesn't get much down time with rowing 5 days a week and compulsory after school activities the other two days.

bruffin where we live, zero hours mean employers aren't interested in someone who's only available at a set time every week. They want you when they want you and it changes week to week. That can work for a university student but not at school or college.

Family income based EMA is still available.

It works fine for my friends dc who work in places like nandos or jds and my dc

'EMA is now closed in England.'
www.gov.uk/education-maintenance-allowance-ema

There is a 16-19 Bursary but the full amount is only available in very specific cases e.g. leaving care.

I promise you, if suitable part time jobs had been available, my son would have chosen one over the extended, unpaid work experience I made him do instead

YANBYU I worked as a waitress in a small café on weekends starting the month after my 16th birthday. I was in school until 18 doing A Levels and kept the job until the café closed when the owner retired. I then moved on to a soft play area but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone, expect at least a headache every day you work! I had good grades, leaving with ABBB. It taught me to interact with others (I was painfully shy), manage my money and appreciate it as well (i.e. working out how many hours I had to work to pay for something). Honestly if you can encourage him to get a job it really is worth it.
I also found it put me in a better position when applying for jobs during my time at uni and afterwards as you already have some transferable skills on your CV. Friends of mine had never worked before and struggled to bulk out their CVs. It's hard enough to find a job after you graduate!

My ds school held a meeting at the start of sixth form to tell us expectations of work, the courses etc.

The head asked us if at all possible to not let them take jobs until after A levels.
They are expected to do three hours a day study.

Ds does work hard plus plays sport four times a week, he couldn't do it and I don't want him to.

Dd1 did have a job but didn't play sport or do anything else.

I think if op son is not working in any area, he might as well get a job.

When I was doing A levels I was working 20 or so hours a week at a cinema. It was great to learn some wider skills, met loads of people (including my DH!). In retrospect I have no idea how I did it! I got five 'A's at A level (before the days of A*). I think somewhere in between when I did and nothing is about right. Makes you far more employable after uni if you have had a job before too.

Our older son's sixth form suggested no more than 8 hours paid work a week.

I do appreciate it isn't easy for many youngsters to get a Saturday job, but the least they can do is at least try and find one - or use their initiative to do car washing/dog walking/babysitting etc

Around here I believe there are fewer job opportunities - there are three professional car wash outfits in our village, numerous professional dog walkers and two babysitting services. There is no need to let a teenager loose on your expensive car when you can get it washed for £5 by someone with insurance etc.

There is still restaurants, cafés and shops though.

I completely agree about the benefits of a part time job but what we did when we were 16 isn't relevant. Less than one in five young people now have 'Saturday jobs' (see earlier link) so unless you really do believe they're all lazy then something else must have changed.

Clearly there are still regional differences.

Yep. I appreciate that the pattern isn't uniform everywhere, but surely those of you living in areas where there's lots of weekend work for students locally can see that this isn't necessarily the case everywhere? And that your experiences aren't necessarily representative.

Good point about volunteering too. This may well be more useful to future prospects. Not just employment, but also certain competitive uni courses. To be quite honest, having recruited, I'd have no choice but to assign more weight to relevant volunteer experience than I would to work experience in the typical sixth form Saturday job. There are obviously arguments to be made about the unfairness of this, especially as some sixth formers come from families where they've no choice but to work alongside their studies, but it doesn't make it any less true.

I am not saying that working on the tills in WHSmith or cleaning in a cafe won't teach you anything of value. It most certainly will. But it is not necessarily the optimum use of time to enhance future prospects. The comments about how future employers like work experience don't necessarily take this into account.

I agree with Elisaveta. It's a really good idea for teenagers to have some kind of work experience by the time they leave university, but proper, committed volunteering is likely to be more useful than an unskilled Saturday job. It will help greatly with references for graduate jobs, and will also provide experience that can be discussed on application forms and in interviews. I wouldn't force an A level student into a Saturday job unless they wanted the extra money, but I would certainly encourage them to use their spare time to get some experience working outside of school.

It's perhaps less important to somebody who intends to take a gap year, however, because that can be a really useful year to build up experience of working properly.

What are his grades like? If he's an A grade student it means he is managing his time and studying during the week and so why shouldn't he have the weekends off? If he's failing then tbh he needs to stop studying and get a ft job.

Yeah. I'd say you'd ideally want some experience both of paid employment and of time spent in the relevant sector by the time you're looking to start work in earnest and pay your own way. A Saturday job while doing FE isn't the only way to obtain the former, and actually could be counterproductive in some situations.

In some industries you could put both together, but not all by any means. I think the implications of this are really worrying, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

" I Wouldn't mind if he was revising or handing assignments in on time."

Maybe the answer is to put pressure on him to work harder at his assignments, then? I think being an A-level student is equivalent to doing a full-time job. But they have to commit to it and do it properly. I don't see why you'd want to say, "You're not doing your A-level work, therefore you should have a paid job instead."

I agree it's worrying. Young people face enough difficulties in the job market without being penalised before they've even left school. And the view from some posters that it's because they basically can't be arsed - well that concerns me too.

College is bloody easy and pretty much part time with all the free periods for study.
Even if he can get a job for a couple of evenings a week it demonstrates an ability to work and live in the real world.
It's easier to find a job when you have a job.
Plus he can fund his social life.
I'd only fund the necessities, he very close to adulthood, a taste of the real world won't do him any harm.

None of ours were required to work at weekends- we actively discouraged it because we wanted them to get good grades

there's no correlation though. I'm sure we all know youngsters who have stormed through school with 4 or 5 As and A*s at A-level, whilst playing sport at county level and holding down a couple of shifts at their fast food restaurant, and equally, there are people who got a D and 2 Es who never did anything (volunteering, competing, or working) out of school whilst doing their A-levels.
Some people are naturally more able than others and some have learnt to work hard. Some work hard but aren't as able. Some are naturals but don't put the work in. There's no correlation between working part time and doing poorly with academic work. Indeed, my experience of young people I know, would say the opposite is true.

I wouldn't force it if he had good study ethic but he doesn't. That being said as long as you aren't giving him cash then really it's up to him.

I worked from the day I turned 16, did one alevel a year early and got the best grades in my school and place as prestigious university. Worked through uni too, I know that's not possible with all courses though.

YABU.His course is full time that is his job! Plus he should be doing a lot of work ourside his school/college if he is aiming for the top grades.A job in the summer holidays is a good idea-during termtime NO

BackforGood that might be your experience and is true for some but research shows quite a strong correlation. In fact, the school our youngest four did sixth form at did not allow pupils to have jobs as a condition of sixth form entry. Certainly, 6 A levels, playing County Orchestra and sport or IB plus A level and dancing with RB didn't allow much time for work.

Can you link to that research for us please?

I'm not sure if you are just going for a not such a stealth boast, but surely you realise that 6 A-levels is not usual? You are also proving the point though, that doing lots of stuff outside of A-levels, is possible, if your dc was playing sport, and doing County Orchestra, and dancing with RB - exactly what people are saying. Around A-levels, for a motivated youngster, there is enough time to spend several hours a week doing something else.