Talking about Work: School Students’ Views on their Paid Employment

Abstract

Seventy 15‐year‐old students in rural and urban Scottish schools, who had previously answered questionnaires about the extent of their part‐time employment, were interviewed. Work appears to be the norm in their communities, 79 per cent having worked and most of the others anticipating working before leaving school. Although the interviewees’ accounts of their jobs give some support to those who argue that most of the paid employment school students undertake is routine and boring, it was also found that most of the young workers found their work satisfying and believed that their experience of working helped to prepare them for adult life. It is proposed that research on the meaning of employment for school students should be extended and that the self‐report techniques currently employed might be supplemented by observational studies. © 2006 The Author(s). Copyright © 2005 National Children's Bureau.

School students’ part‐time work: understanding what they do

“…The second conclusion to be drawn from this work was that there were poor levels of agreement between what young workers said they did and what they were observed doing. The latter finding mirrors Hobbs et al's (2007) concerns over the level of young workers insight into their work activities.…”

“…Although event recording tended to identify only a limited number of activities not mentioned in the interviews, in three cases (John, Margaret and Rachael) the observations highlighted a greater number of activities than the interview. This suggests that, as argued by Hobbs et al (2007), employees are not all adept at detailing their typical day or the activities that they perform. Had we relied only on interviews or other forms of self-report, information on many activities would have been lost.…”

“…These also have limitations. Hobbs et al (2007) have argued that one central problem is that young workers may not be well practiced in discussing their jobs. Interviews may raise ideas that the employees have never really thought about.…”

Child Work: Attitudes and Policies of Consumption among a Group of Italian Youngsters

“…It is certain, however, that if little is known about the opinions and attitudes of children in developing countries, much less is known about the opinions and attitudes of young people in the industrialized countries (Hobbs et al, 2007;McKechnie, and Hobbs, 1999). Nevertheless, having a deeper knowledge about their opinion is important also because this phenomenon interests the economically developed countries.…”

Re‐assessing minimum‐age standards for children's work

“…Grootaert and Patrinos, 1999). Many sociological and anthropological studies do not find work to be inherently negative, though it certainly may be harmful in specific contexts and conditions, and therefore question abolitionist perspectives (Nieuwenhuys, 1994(Nieuwenhuys, , 2005Mortimer, 2003;Leonard, 2003;Hobbes et al, 2007).…”