If you have a 16/17 year old at college, do they also have a part time job? What do they do?

[RJB73]

DD16 (17 early May) is at college 3 days a week. She found a Christmas job at a well known UK chain store but since that has ended she has really struggled to find part time work.

It appears to be so difficult finding work in our area (even though our town received city status a few years ago and has been growing at an alarming rate).

Has your dc found it difficult to get work at this age?

GCSEs finish in year 11...when they're 16. Some stay at school to do a levels...some do them at a college or do btecs, t levels or some sort of vocational course at colleges.

Yes DD has been working since 16, she's a lifeguard and had to do a training course first which I paid for. But they are always after lifeguards at the local pools so it was easy for her to get a job.

It's good in the way that midweek matches are evening work so she can do after college and also weekends can be a 6 hour shift at £12 an hour so if they are away the week after she can spread her wage out a bit. By doing this the contractors open other temporary posts up like Aintree races so she will get a good wage for that :)

My DS is 16 and does 3 days a week at college and 2 or 3 days a week as an electricians mate/assistant.
He also works at a pub (kitchen assistant/waiting on) 1 evening a week. He does some mowing for a couple of customers throughout the summer months. He recently stopped his paper round because it was too much.
He’s probably the hardest working person I know! He’s very proactive though & will happily respond to adverts on Facebook/ local newspaper or ask in person in the pub etc.

DD works as a lifeguard. They all seem to be a similar age. In fact DSis did the same thing at that age.

Many reasons
Some choose to do highers/A levels at college rather than high school
Some go to vocational college rather than stay in academia
Scottish here. We had 16 year olds in my class at uni (I was 17)

Hospitality work at a nearby venue catering for ad hoc events. A few days every few months, it's not as much as a real part time job but he is getting catering experience.
The only way to get jobs around here seems to be through people you know or to walk in with CVs. DS is quite quiet and finds the walking in hard.
Indeed has been useless (although he got this events job off Indeed).

My oldest did try to get a part time job at 16 but it seemed impossible. As soon as he hit 18, he got a job easily and that was the case for all his friends too. When he realised that he was unlikely to get a job at 16/17 he did GCSE tutoring. It actually worked out well as he earned more per hour doing tutoring and so did less hours leaving more time for study/free time.

My youngest will be a college from September and we have told her not to even bother applying for a part time job until she’s 18. It’s not worth the time and effort spent to hear nothing back. She’s going to do 4 A levels so I’m even less keen on her working anyway.

Mine are a little older and they would send 8-10 applications a day I'd say but what seemed to have worked best was to be super quick at applying. Because these vacancies sometimes gets hundreds of applicants and it's all unqualified work they basically stop looking at the applications once they have received 20-30 of them. So apply the same day they advertise and in the meantime try and find volunteering work, but even that can be hard. My DD worked at a cattery for a while and DS did soup kitchen, for DD that eventually let to a part-time role at a pet store and DS got work as a pot washer because of his experience.

DD has applied for several volunteer vacancies but even that has proven to be tricky.

Where did you DS do the tutoring - did people come to your house?
I wonder if it's an option for my younger DS when he completes his GCSEs (also plans to go to college)

My eldest got her first Saturday job at 15 working Sat mornings at a bakery in town, she is nearly 17 now and has a job in the village pub waitressing, once she is 17 she will also do a shift behind the bar, she tends to work between 6-9 hours a week. My youngest is 15 and babysits for a local family a few hours a week, she’s planning on completing lifeguard training when she is 16 as she doesn’t want to do a waitressing/shop type job. We live in a village on the outskirts of a small town, all my daughters friends have jobs, there seems to be plenty of stuff around for them.

My dd started out by going to the houses of her tutees. Then she started doing some online tutoring. She only does the online ones now.

My DS also works as a lifeguard, he did the NPLQ at 16 and easily got a job at local leisure centre - one regular shift a week and bank work when he wants it. Well paid for that age group as they pay 16 year olds the same as adults. Hopefully he will be able to pick up some shifts based at his university but certainly at home during the holidays he will be able to rejoin the bank staff. His friends that have jobs mostly work in hospitality for lower pay and rubbish shifts.

More questions! Did/does she do secondary or primary?
I hadn't even thought of online, although that seems really obvious now.

Mostly it was done at their house, but sometimes they came to our house and sometimes online. Sometimes a parent would contact him to say the student was struggling with something in between sessions, so my son would offer an online session straight away.

At first he only tutored for GCSE, so children in years 10 and 11, but he then started tutoring years 7-9 as one of the parents asked him to help a younger sibling and then recommended him to friends. He didn’t do any primary age tutoring.

My son started off stacking shelves in the evening at the local Foodhall when he was 16.
He did labouring during summer holidays.
Now he works at a petrol station.
My daughter has just got her first job at a little independent chocolate and gift shop, she’s only 15 though so not many hours.

Both. Started off with primary, but now does almost exclusively secondary.

My nieces are a similar age and really struggling to find part-time work.

i loved getting a job once I turned 16. I did a full day on the weekend plus some evenings in the week. It felt great to actually have my own money and be able to buy nice things and go out with friends without asking for money. Plus being able to fund driving lessons once turned 17. So it’s a shame for those struggling to find anything.

Ds is in year 11, he works as a lifeguard one shift a week.

Heard something the other day about part time work for low paid workers becoming too expensive for businesses. Means a lot of women needing work around school hours and Uni jobs will be going unfortunately.

Employers often prefer 18 year olds because they can work longer without a break, work after midnight and handle alcohol. (This isn’t relevant for all jobs but helps)

One of mine was a barista and worked longer hours during school holidays which was a popular pay off with staff who wanted school holidays off.

Another worked retail and his company were able to offer more school holiday hours too.

The third worked as a car valet which is ironic considering how much he avoids cleaning his room.

It is such a shame. I used to be able to get work so easily at that age although that was 35 years ago so very different times then. It does seem so hard now.

Definitely. I was in sixth form 15 years ago which doesn’t feel too long ago and it was very easy to find work as long as you weren’t overly fussy. Places like McDonald’s, dominos, Pizza Hut and the like always had spaces- my niece has tried all these and similar with no success bless her.

I think that is probably the case unfortunately. It is almost impossible to find part time work in our area (unless it is care work) and when anything is advertised it gets taken off early due to a high influx of applicants. I currently care for my mum but I am looking for some afternoon work as carers allowance is a pittance, there is hardly anything in our area.

It will only get worse once all the people on PIP etc are made to start looking for work but that's for another thread I suppose.