Part time jobs at university

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Maybe a silly question but if your DC have part time jobs in their uni towns/ cities, what do they do during the holidays ie Christmas and Easter? Do they take annual leave, or do they have understanding employers who keep the job open for them for a few weeks, or do they just not come home during university holidays?

My son travels back to his Uni town for work, fortunately we live less than an hour away and his work are pretty reasonable and put his shifts together so he only goes once a week

I worked all through uni, a mix of jobs including barista and retail assistant, typically we were expected to do shifts over holidays. My sister on the other hand worked holidays at home in a care home and term time didn’t work. My brother did online recruitment type work so could work anywhere.

DC2 has a zero hours contract and was clear from the outset that they could only work termtime.

What job do they do if you don't mind me asking?

My nephew worked for a supermarket. They allowed him to switch between the home and university branches plus he got discount on food etc

Lifeguard. There is a national shortage of lifeguards so it very easy to get a job. DC2 works in a leisure centre at uni and another one at home.

You need to be a reasonable swimmer but nothing amazing and do the NPLQ (lifeguard qualification) which takes a week and costs £300-ish. DC2 earns about £160 in London for an 11-hour shift:

I forgot to say - DC2 gets free use of the gym at their workplace too.

My DD worked at Sainsbury's and they allowed her to do this too. It was very good for her. She worked just Saturdays at uni but 16 hours when at home. She often got full time during summer holidays which allowed permanent staff to go off on annual leave and not leave colleagues short staffed.

Mine has a job term time only for the university and in holidays works by home. She has a zero hours contract here but gets about £17 an hour on average.

I’m certainly not a student at 61 but work for a great promo company called CPM . A lot of uni students work for them as the work is casual and/or permanent and you can pick and choose what work to do and it’s well paid. I do in store food sampling and have done for years, but have also been a merchandiser and also taken on the odd casual job with them if I need extra money . They also do roadshows for big companies and it’s students that usually take the jobs,like dressing up and handing out leaflets that sort of thing. You could always sign up with a few agencies as there’s a few about. It’s not for the work shy though.

Many uni town jobs will want students to continue in holidays and it can be a case of continue or resign . Of course there should be the basic h holiday allowance. Term time only jobs like those with uni or those in shortage areas like life guarding or swim teaching (the latter often term time -school terms) might work.

At the end of 1st year, many students start their private rental contracts in July…so actually they can stay living in the uni town and work there. Some places seem to have most students clearing off in hols though. Maybe more 2nd to 3rd yrs stay?? Also depends on other stuff like family holidays, interning etc.

Hol jobs which will be happy to just take students for hols might include some retail (prob Christmas mostly) but also school holiday club providers.

Also if they have a relationship with an employer from previous 6th form Sat job, they might give them temporary hol work.

Many students just work in term time or hols. They take one of the kind of jobs which just needs them then…or they take one that wants them all the time and leave before the long summer. It depends on how many hours they want to do and how much they need to earn.

I took the view that working pretty much full time for a month or 6 weeks in summer could raise £1.5-2k and was prob enough. Others need more than this to be able to live or have expensive lifestyles and want to have a much higher income.

DS2 lives in a Uni town and for the last 3 years he has worked at Wetherspoons so his hours are significantly less over the summer break as they do not need as many people, but he doesnt tend to come home for more than 2 weeks at a time anyway due to football
Christmas he uses AL to cover the time he is home