Earning while Learning: student employment (Research Briefing for the Education Sector)

This research briefing for the education sector reports key findings from the study ‘L-earning: rethinking young women’s working lives’. The briefing reports data drawn from: a) analyses of national datasets of student employment; and b) focus group interviews with 83 young women about their experiences of engaging in paid work whilst studying (‘Earning while Learning’). Participants were aged between 14-23 years old and attending schools, Further Education (FE) colleges, sixth forms, and universities across England. We refer to young people engaged in Earning while Learning as ‘students’ and ‘student workers’. This briefing offers recommendations for educational institutions, student unions, policymakers and sector representatives for improving the experiences for student workers.