Does DD need a job while at university?

[seel]

I don't know what's best to encourage. She has had a job in a supermarket since she was 16, she is now 19 (had to resit a year in a levels) and still has her job of course. It's only 10 hours a week currently but if she does a store move (which they can try and accommodate, but isn't always possible anyway) she is probably looking at no where near a contract that low. Most likely she won't be able to move anyway and will have to just leave and find a new job.

She is lucky in that her grandparents are covering her full rent cost. She will then have her full loan £8k? To just live on. She will need to pay bills and her car will be a lot (she is renting a small flat and this is what my grandparents will pay) I know most will not agree with not going into student accommodations but it's right for her.

So she has what £666 a month to pay for everything else which is plenty. She is very sensible with money, so I don't know if I should be encouraging her to focus on her studies or encouraging her to keep earning her own money, you know?

Depends on the course contact hours/ workload/ labs and also how she likes to spend her time- some students have a lot of unstructured time and can feel at a loose end, others get immersed in societies etc. Financially she is very fortunate. What does she think?

So she'll get the full loan AND her grandparents are paying her rent? Fucking hell she'll be minted! Think about it - £200 a week for food, clothes and the bar! Nice! You do realise the vast majority of her peers won't be on anything like that much?

She might not need to work from a financial sense but it can often be useful from an employability perspective.

Perhaps if she had not worked she might have got her A level grades first time around? I would drop the work for year 1. As others have said, she’s rich in comparison to many and not messing up would be more important in my view. It would have been more prudent for her grandparents to save some of the money for a house deposit, especially as the rent is presumably over the £3000 annual gift exemption from Inheritance Tax.

She'll be better off than your average working professional so I doubt she'll need a job! Maybe she could try and work in the holidays to build up savings for when she graduates?

Some work might be useful. Supermarket work is of doubtful value and she’s fine it for years anyway. It’s nothing new. Work and experience should be more geared to work after university unless you want a job with the supermarket of course.

done it for years...,

Are the grandparents aware of the inheritance tax implications? Assuming their estate would be over the threshold. She will be absolutely rolling in it!

bubbles supermarket work can be very valuable. Employers look at transferable skills.
All the graduate employers I've ever spoken to have said that they can tell the difference between those that have worked and those that haven't and they do value jobs like this.

I would leave it up to her as I did with mine. Most did not have jobs during term time.

Each grandparent can gift £3000 per year each, and they can also roll it back a year so with the first year they can gift £12000 - so over the 3 years they can give £24000 which should cover accommodation.

Irs entirely course dependent really. With that she won't need a job but she might want one

I would probably go without and then once she is settled and knows what her hours and workload are like she can look for one

Presumably the grandparents can do what they like with their money? The grandparents could be in their 50s for all we know!

I think working during the holidays is sufficient. As bubbles said she might do better focusing on her studies.
Financially she will be considerably better off than most students.
I do think a flat on her own might mean she finds it harder to make friends at least to begin with.

Bubbles As pp has said don’t discredit supermarket work, lots of transferable skills such as money handling, problem solving, mental maths, time management, supervisory roles, customer service, retail knowledge, product knowledge,communication skills etc...

OP I’d probably still encourage a job. Most bars/restaurants and shops in student/ uni areas will have typical ‘student contracts’ due to the amount of students in the area so even as little as 4-8hrs a week would potentially be feasible. Not that she’ll probably need any extra cash like others have said but would be good to have some sort of routine and meet new people if anything

I would leave it up to her. Work isn't all about money. It can provide social interaction, give your mind something to think about, give you a reason to get out of bed on a Saturday.

My Dd has nowhere near that much to live on but prefers to work during the holidays rather than term time. Dd2 has no time as her studies are very intense but she also works holidays.

Does it not depend on the course? DD1 had a weekend/holiday job when at school but has no time now for anything other than her course, rowing and singing.

I collected her on Sunday and she spent yesterday and today working on course stuff. I asked her if she could take my dad into the local town tomorrow to collect a prescription (30 minutes in total) and she went mad saying she had loads of work to do blah blah. It was the same at Christmas too. In the summer she can take on paid employment but she genuinely cannot manage it during term time. However, she is studying a science course at Cambridge which is pretty full-on. So to answer the OP, it depends completely on the course.

In theory, a degree course is full time, so working 10 hours per week puts her at around 48 hours per week. That's quite a lot. Of course, some students don't feel they work anything like full time hours, but if she isn't keeping up, the first thing her tutors will ask is if she's actually working the hours she should be working. Could she not see how the first year goes, and then start working again if she's comfortable?

There's about 3 months off in the summer. And a month at Easter. Would it be enough to work during those periods and save up?

If they're doing a serious course they don't get a month 'off' at Easter. I'll be lucky to get mine home for a few days break from her revision. The priority at university surely should be study.

Actually Eccles for many students it's study and ensure they're employable at the end of it.

Part time jobs can go a long way in helping students in this respect. Especially if there isn't a placement element to their course.

Graduate employers want students to have experience of working. They tell me they can see the difference in those students who have worked while at university and those that haven't.

I worked all through my degree as did the majority of my friends. We all got 2:1 or better in law, engineering or maths. The skills we got from working were viewed as desirable by employers. It is good for her to learn to juggle studies and work. In real life she will have to juggle other responsibilities with work so I would encourage her to keep a job going.

Doesn’t need to be the supermarket job. She could transfer with that if possible but if they want too many hours she could find something else.

Surely it would be useful for her to have a job eventually so she can get more hours during holidays/ after she graduates?

She should continue to work but in a job relevant to her degree. Or maybe even n volunteer if she can find a good position.