13 years old wanting to work

[BabaMomma]

Hello,

My 13 years old son is wanting to work. We live in London.
I'm not against it but I need some ideas and advice.
Could you please help me with any ideas regarding safety and anything else I should be aware of?
If you have a young teen who works or worked at this age what kind of jobs did they do? Where did they look for work? Absolutely any and all advice welcome. Thank you!

You will struggle to get anything more than a paper round and you will struggle to get one of those as they either don't exist or are highly sought after.
UNLESS you are willing for them to work somewhere dodgy that doesn't have the proper insurance or find a company willing to sort out the appropriate insurance etc (these are very few and far between)

My son is 15 and works but only because he works for the same small family company I work for and they went out of their way to sort out insurance etc . They wouldn't have done it for a random teen they didn't know.

DD started her paper round just after she turned 14, but some of friends started younger. She asked at a couple of newsagents, but got her round after a rip-off from a friend who knew a vacancy was coming up. It's been really good for her - she gets outside and active every day, has to get up in the mornings, has learned a lot about responsibility, reliability and the value of work, has made several acquaintances in the elderly customers who like a chat (some of them have really interesting lives), she has the rest of her day free, and she gets just over £27 a week (not in London).

www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-employment
These are the rules around hours and certain types of work.

I used to babysit at this age.

Tip-off, not rip-off. The jobs do tend to get passed on between people who know each other.

My DD tutored 11 plus and taught kids music and babysat at this age. She charged a lot less than adults and all the kids loved her. Does your DS have any skills incl eg sports skills? Friends son is fluent in French and teaches that online etc

Lots of young teens near us get paid to help in eg ballet classes, as assistant football and tennis coaches etc basically with anything extra curricular.

Can he make things to sell on etsy? Probably not his thing but a colleagues DD has been making mobile phone charms for a few years and has done very well out of it. He maybe able to think of something similar, or share printables of artwork if he is talented.

Was this a long time ago or recently? Did she have all the relevant insurances etc? I think the world has changed a lot and the types of things we used to do as teens are no longer suitable. I used to pick fruit but they dont employ kids for that anymore due to health and safety. A lot of parents are also a lot more wary about leaving their kids with a teen especially an unrelated one.

Its really tricky at this age. On line selling is good - etsy or folksy if its crafty or vintage or even stuff like comics, vintage toys of some sort or specialist collector items but he may need funding to start that off. Dog walking for known neighbours with well behaved dogs, cat sitting ie feeding and cleaning etc although this may involve having keys which could prove tricky unless its friends families. Car Washing, lawn mowing, plant watering for holidays? Leaflet delivery - although this is usually low paid for the amount of physical walking and the finger snapping letter boxes, If he is up for some child minding if say parents based at home for work and he can be there as well to play, entertain, get snacks and drinks etc and keep kids company. If he is into tech can he website build? Might be worth looking at for tiny micro style businesses, although he may need some help actually running it as a business etc. If he is into tiktok and insta there are also people out there looking for trainers for this so he could help out with that either 1 to 1 or zoom etc.

We’ve just taken on the 14 year old son of one of our employees for a summer job for a few hours a week.

The insurance bit was ok, our insurers confirmed that if you have employee liability insurance, it covers your employees whatever their age - check though, as different policies may have different rules.

I had to apply to the council for a work permit and write a specific risk assessment for him.

He’s only allowed to work 20 hours a week, between certain hours. He’s only allowed to do certain jobs and I had to list everything we intended to get him to do on the application for the work permit. We’ve got him doing a bit of sweeping in the workshop, bit of weeding in the car park and stuff like that as that’s really all he’s allowed to do.

It was easy enough to do, but the local council then took weeks to get the permit back to us.

There are so many restrictions on what he’s allowed to do, tools he’s not allowed to use, products he’s not allowed to use that we’ve ended up kind of creating a job for him and a lot of our time is spent trying to find things for him to do that he’s allowed to do.

Nowadays there are too many laws and restrictions, most companies won’t employ children because it’s too complicated and too much risk of getting into trouble. The teenagers I know who work either know the business owner so they were happy to put themselves out to employ a child, or they’re self employed doing car washing, gardening, babysitting, selling stuff they’ve made, etc.

At that age, my kids might help out family friends and such with projects, but focused more on volunteering. There are organisations that can give far more access to experience through volunteering with young teenagers than can easily be done through employment in most areas where there are more barriers.

Paper round. It's illegal to employ children under 16 as far as I'm aware.

Thank you for all your replies!
Beamur Before posting I've had a look on gov.uk regarding legality etc so I'm aware of limited hrs, strict health and safety regulations.

Hellocatshome here very few people buy papers anymore, I don't think it would work. I'm glad your lad has the opportunity to work, you must have a truly awesome employer!

RB68 some really good ideas there, thanks!

alloalloallo you are an absolute star! I believe we should support those youngsters who are willing to work but of course we need those amazing employers who make it a possibility. Honestly, you are one in a million!

I think we are going to look around in our neighborhood to see if anyone got small jobs for a teen.
Many thanks for all of you!

You are incorrect. Perfectly legal as long as certain requirements are met. What do you think a paper round is if its not employment?

That's incorrect! Obviously very strict H&S rules and regulations but definitely not illegal.

As others have said, it’s not illegal at all.

There are strict conditions, you have to apply to the local council for a permit, but it is absolutely not illegal.

It’s not easy for youngsters to get themselves little part time jobs, when I was 13/14, I had a Saturday job in a little local bakery.

It is a bit of a faff, but easy enough to do. The council sent me the application form and a risk assessment template, but the restrictions on what he is and isn’t allowed to do make it really difficult for us to find him work to do. The kind of thing we’d usually get an unskilled/un-trained short-term employee to do (sort out our stores, cleaning, putting deliveries away, etc) he’s forbidden to do,

Car washing
Babysitting
Sell stiff on vinted
Cat sitting
Dog walking

My son also has a paper round. It's been great for his confidence and fitness. Over the summer he's been able to cover other rounds too so making double.
Before the paper round he made money flipping games. He needed an idea of what games were worth to know when he was getting a good deal. He'd buy from eBay mostly but also went to car boots and cex etc. He'd often buy bundles then sell them individually, generally did quite well out of it. He prefers the paper round though as it's guaranteed money and he likes to get it out the way first thing whereas game flipping meant he was spending time watching auctions and doing research at various times of the day

gardening