Background
to the
Research
- The huge expansion of post-compulsory
education in the UK over the last 20 years, coupled with the steady
erosion of financial support for students at university, is likely
to have contributed to the growing numbers of young people in sixth
forms and FE colleges that also have part-time jobs.
- Part-time work, from one
perspective, complements education and gives students extra maturity
and time-management skills. On the other hand, the zero-sum model
argues that given time is limited, part-time work displaces educational
activities and is therefore detrimental to educational performance.
Existing research finds no clear overall relationship of the effects
of part-time work.
- In NI, around 80% of 16
year olds stay on in some form of post-compulsory education. Existing
statistics give little detail on how many of these young people also
work part-time. One study of undergraduates in Belfast found that
46% have a part-time job, with 33% working 20 or more hours a week.
- UK studies have found that
70% of 16-19 year olds work between 6 and 15 hours per week, with
10% working 20 or more hours. Some studies find that those with longer
working hours display negative educational performance effects. Also,
different groups of people might be affected by part-time work in
different ways. This study controls for observed individual characteristics,
and examines how the effects of working part-time vary with the number
of hours worked.
Research
Approach
- Data from the 1999 second sweep of the
Status Zero Survey was used for this paper. It is an interview-based
cohort survey of young people first eligible to leave school in NI
in June 1993. The second sweep was carried out in June 1999, and contains
detailed background information, qualifications, and monthly activity
status of young people for the six years following compulsory education
(age 16-22). The sample (n = 450) used in this paper was for all those
who had a spell in sixth form or FE.
- The discrete nature of the data led to
the authors using an unusual 'bivariate semi-ordered probit model'
for the analysis.
Main
Findings
- 35% of the young people in this study engaged
in part-time work during their spell of education; if vacation work
is included, this figure rises to 45%. This is considerably lower
than recent estimates for the UK.
- The authors speculate that this figure
may be explained partly because employment opportunities are harder
to come by in NI than the rest of the UK, and also because NI is a
comparatively low-wage economy and was pre-minimum wage at the time
of the survey, thereby discouraging young people from part-time work.
- 15% of those who worked part-time worked
20 or more hours per week. Over half worked between 6-15 hours per
week.
- 46% of young people achieved the equivalent
of NVQ Level 3 at the end of their education spell.
- There is a wider spread of qualifications
for those who were not involved in part-time work; those engaged in
part-time work were more likely to achieve Level 3 than those not
engaged in part-time work (57.4% compared to 39.0%).
- When restricting the data only to those
in part-time work, the hours worked/highest qualification level correlation
is in fact negative, but not significant i.e. the relationship is
negative not probable enough to accept.
- The exception is the coefficient on the
part-time dummy variable for working in paid employment for 15 or
more hours per week; it is negative and significant. Therefore, working
a small number of hours per week in paid employment is not likely
to harm educational performance, but working 15 or more hours per
week is detrimental to examination performance.
- This amounts to a third of the young people
in full-time post-compulsory education that also work part-time who
are hindering their examination performance, or a seventh of all students
in sixth form or FE colleges in NI.
- There may be some evidence of selection
in this study, where those young people engaging in part-time employment
have different characteristics than those without part-time employment.
A positive correlation between qualification level at age 16 and the
binary dummy for part-time work was found, whilst a negative correlation
between the binary dummy for part-time work and the dummy for father
unemployed was found. This means that it is those young people with
higher levels of human and social capital that are obtaining part-time
jobs during study. Another explanation is that it is those young people
who are planning to go to university who are more likely to choose
to work part-time, in order to save money to help pay their way.
- Young people whose fathers are in managerial,
professional or related employment are more likely to have a part-time
job than those whose fathers are unemployed.
- Previous studies have found that part-time
employment increases with age. In this case, the effect of age was
positive, but not significant.
- Females are more likely than males to
engage in part-time employment during FE.
- Living in the south of NI reduces the
chances of part-time employment.
- This study lends qualified support to
the 'zero-sum' hypothesis of part-time work's effect on educational
performance. Policy needs to discourage young people in full-time
post-compulsory education from working in paid employment for more
than 15 hours per week.
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