Secondary school students in paid employment

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate the employment experiences of secondary school students. In particular, it focuses on a sample of sixth and seventh form students in the Wellington region, who were in paid employment during the first school term of 1994. Amongst the issues addressed are: the type of work the students are involved in; their pay and working conditions; their knowledge of their employment contracts; their reasons for working; the effect that paid wont has on school work. A written questionnaire was distributed to students at four secondary schools in the Wellington region. A total of 219 responses were received. Follow up focus groups were then carried out with volunteers from two of these schools. The results indicate that student workers have a wide variety of employment experiences. Some are not getting the paid holidays and sick leave they are seemingly entitled to, and are receiving low pay, and working long hours doing boring jobs. There are others, though, who are working under reasonable employment conditions for fair (or even high) pay and enjoy what they do. Students who fall into the latter category seem to generally regard this as due to luck that they got that particular job and employer, rather than having any control over the situation themselves. The subsequent discussion explores this finding in relation to the issues of powerlessness and independence. Also highlighted are the lack of knowledge of the Employment Contracts Act and how it applies to the students' own situations, and the negative effects of paid work on school work and the factors associated with them.