Undergraduates’ Work: A Blessing or a curse?
On the Bank Holiday I was offered work which was - because it was a Bank Holiday – going to be double pay, so it would have been something like twelve pounds an hour. But we had an essay in the next day so even though a large part of me was tempted to take that work – it was a long shift as well so it would have been twelve hours – I knew I had to do the essay to be in for the next day. I knew that wasn’t the sort of thing I could get an extension for, to say ‘Oh I got offered really well paid work’ and I didn’t have anything else about me that I could put it down to.
This was the dilemma articulated by a second year student during recent research into undergraduates’ experiences of working conducted by Angela Vesey at NottinghamTrentUniversity.The 2010 study explored the nature and extent of undergraduates’ working at NTU, their motivations for working and its perceived impact.
This article will briefly focus on findings relating to the impact of working and highlight some pertinent issues emerging from this study for HEIs and Careers Services to consider.
Negative impact of working: academic, health and well-being
The majority of study participants perceived that working part-time had a negative impact on their academic performance, supporting findings from a review of topic literature (Curtis and Shani 2002; Metcalf 2003;Humphrey 2006; Callender 2008).
I’d like to think it was because I was taking too much on that my marks were bad. I do feel that if I wasn’t working and I only had my uni work to focus on that it would have been better marks because I know I can do better than what I’ve been getting. I don’t want to be blaming it on my work but I feel like I could have been doing better if I wasn’t working the whole time.
(Year 2 undergraduate)
Additionally, reflecting national findings,students in this study indicated that working had a negative impact on their health and well being, particularly tiredness and fatigue which often resulted in missed lecture attendance and reduced concentration on academic work.
Increased stress and anxiety as a result of working was also an emerging theme. A variety of reasons were presented to explain this including increased responsibility in roles either as a result of promotion, for example, from sales to supervisor or as a result of unexpected additional shifts being offered which presented them with a predicament about priorities.
Positive impact of working: Career Development Learning
But working while studying wasn’t considered all bad news by students. The findings of this study provided some valuable insights into learning from combining roles and ‘career.’
Research participants noted significant career related learning through experiences derived from a range of roles (Super,1994; Krumboltz,1979; Brott, 2005).The notion of work experience providing an arena for instrumental and associative learning experiences (Krumboltz, 1979) was also evidenced;
I think it’s important for students to have jobs whilst they’re at uni because uni is all about learning these new skills and getting you ready to go into the world but part of that comes with having practical experiences. There are a lot of people that I look at and think ‘You have no idea’. I know I’m only young but… I’ve been working since I was thirteen and I think it’s important. You learn the value of money, responsibilities and then comparing that with uni…I am glad I’ve had the job, I’ve learnt about managing my time, standing up for myself and knowing where I should draw the line, if am I taking on too much. I think they’re important things to learn…
(Year 3 undergraduate)
There was evidence of students developing a sense of realism about the world of work, with their experiences often challenging the existing beliefs they had developed about career;world view generalisations (Krumboltz, 1979).
One student commented on how he might view his own career in the future as a result of his work experience;
I will make sure I’ve researched the job and what it entails and when I start I won’t think ‘Oh I’m going to be dead good at this’. I’m going to take a relaxed approach at it and just see what it’s about,..if I did something before I’d have to jump straight in whereas now I’ve learnt I need to just take it as it comes, learn what I’m doing, don’t try and do things I’m not used to doing. Get the basics right first then build on from that...
(Year 1 undergraduate)
There was also evidence of career role congruence (Brott, 2005) where the relevance of employment to the curriculum content of academic studies and future career experience was clear, resulting in increased satisfaction in overall experience;
Career wise, for me it is like the two of them ( work and study roles) are parallel in a way. I think they’re interlinked. My work experience and what I’m studying, in a way I see them linking to my future goals, of wanting to work with young people with learning disabilities. So I would describe myself as a student with a goal.
(Year 2 undergraduate)
Learning about the culture of work was also significant to a number of students in this study.
Skills development and learning from roles
Learning from individual roles, and the demands of combining roles, particularly in the areas of time and financial management as well as confidence and self awareness were attributes identified as being clearly fostered through work. However whilst students were often able to identify skills from work,a number of respondents struggled with the concept of transferenceof learning from roles, and indicated that it was not something they had necessarily considered before.
With the inevitability of increasing numbers of undergraduates’ working what can HEIs do to help?
Working while studyingwas part of life for the majority of students in this study with 69% indicating that they had worked or were currently working term-time during University. With changes to the student funding, this dependency on work is likely to increase. There areclear political, economic, and social imperatives for HEIs to prioritise student needs and to consider the effects of institutional policies and practices on overall student economic, physical and psychological well being. More flexible timetabling and greater accessibility to learning and support functions for working students might provide a start.
How can Careers Services capitalise on students’ developed understanding of career through work experience?
Careers Services are already actively engaged in supporting students to utilise learning from work experience to enhance their career development. However this study has highlighted that there is still much work to be done in helping students to identifyand articulate their learning from the often diverse roles they occupy while at University, to enhance their career planning skills and their employability. This would certainly be an area where further fostering of academic/career partnerships in HEIs could reap dividends. There is also the tricky and somewhat unresolved issue of how we assess students’ knowledge and understanding of learning transfer.
Angela Vesey is a Lecturer in the Division of Guidance, Youth Studies and Youth Justice in the School of Social Sciences at NTU. If you are interested in finding out more about this research please email her at:
References
Brott, P, 2005. A constructivist Look at Life Roles. The Career Development Quarterly, 34 138-150.
Callender,C. 2008. The impact of term-time employment on higher education students’ academic attainment and achievement. Journal of EducationPolicy,.23 (4), 359-377
Curtis, S. and Sharni, N. 2002. The effect of taking paid employment during term-time on students’ academic studies. Journal of Further and Higher Education,26(2), 129–38.
Curtis, S. 2007. Students perceptions of the effect of term-time paid employment. Education and Training, 49(5), 380-90
Humphrey, R. 2006. Pulling Structured inequality into Higher Education: the impact of part-time working on English University students. Higher Education Quarterly, 60(3), 270-286.
Krumboltz, J, D, 1979, A social learning theory of career decision making. In A M Mitchell, G B Jones and J D Krumboltz (Eds) Social Learning theory and career decision making.
Metcalf, H. 2003. Increasing inequality in higher education: the role of term-time working Oxford Review of Education. 29(3), 315-29.
Super, D, E. 1994. A lifespan, life-space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior,16 282-298.
Vesey, 2010. Exploring the part-time working experiences of undergraduates. Research and Development Review. Division of Guidance, Youth Studies and Youth Justice.NTU 1:1 17-20.