Part-time Work and Full-time Education in The UK: The emergence of a curriculum and policy issue

Abstract

The 1990s have seen a burgeoning international, national and local literature on the significance of part-time work for those in full-time education. In this article, we trace the development of different strands of research in this area over the last decade. In common with other writers, we attribute the increased interest in the phenomenon of part-time work among full-time learners to changes in the youth labour market allied to rising levels of post-16 participation. Using evidence from three recent studies, we suggest that the scale and intensity of participation in part-time work amongst full-time 16-19 year olds appears to have increased significantly towards the end of the 1990s and that a growing commitment to part-time work is become the norm for learners in full-time 16-19 courses. Our research suggests, however, that learners in advanced level courses have related study and paid work in different ways and we develop a number of learner typologies to reflect this. In the final section we explore how the 'Qualifying for Success' qualification reforms (often referred to as 'Curriculum 2000'), which seek to expand study programmes for advanced level 16-19 year olds, might affect the relationship between earning and learning. We conclude by identifying a number of issues around earning and learning that we feel deserve further research and public debate. 2 RESEARCH ON EARNING AND LEARNING IN THE 1990s: FROM OBSERVATIONS OF CHANGE TO AN IMPORTANT POLICY ISSUE The changing nature of the youth labour market and post-16 participation over the last two decades provide the context for the growth of part-time work for 16-19 year olds involved in fulltime education in the UK. However, research during this period has tended to focus either on the lengthening of transitions between school and full-time work or the growth of full-time post-16 participation: research into the role of part-time work has remained relatively underdeveloped. During the early 1990s, however, this began to change and there was a steadily growing body of research in this area. Nevertheless, it was not until the late 1990s that the issue of part-time work among full-time learners in schools and colleges emerged as significant for education practitioners and began to appear in the national press. The largest body of national and international literature on earning and learning has concentrated on child labour, youth exploitation, pay and conditions (e.g. work by Pond and Searle 1991, Hobbs and McKechnie 1997 and O'Donnell and White 1998). In the UK this followed more than a decade of deregulation of the economy and labour relations by successive Conservative governments. At the same time, research focusing on the consequences of the expansion of the service sector, increased labour market flexibility and the spread of casualisation also began to look at the issue of part-time youth labour with concerns about labour substitutionism (e.g. Dex and McCulloch 1995 and Hakim 1996). By the mid-1990s, a number of studies began to focus more specificall...

Learning and work in the lives of young adults

“…Broadbridge and Swanson, 2005;Callender and Kemp, 2000) as well as other European countries (Hodgson and Spours, 2001). A majority of the sixth-formers in Elsheikh and Leney's (2002) research had a part-time job and, the authors argue, part-time working was an embedded part of their culture.…”

“…A majority of the sixth-formers in Elsheikh and Leney's (2002) research had a part-time job and, the authors argue, part-time working was an embedded part of their culture. In the three studies discussed by Hodgson and Spours (2001) (Canny, 2002); continued economic growth, particularly in the service sector; new expensive objects of youth consumption; and the increased likelihood of incurring debt at university (Hodgson and Spours, 2001). In theorising these trends, du Bois Reymond (1998) has suggested that the tendency to combine work and learning (alongside a similar tendency to combine work and leisure time) has resulted in increasingly more complex concepts of life -which have gained wide cultural acceptance.…”

“…For example, in their analysis of part-time work amongst 16-19 year old students, Hodgson and Spours (2001) claim that while many teachers see part-time work as part of 'a disturbing phenomenon' where study does not always come first when earning and learning conflict, students are more positive about their ability to do both. Indeed, Hodgson and Spours suggest that the capacity to combine both work and study differs from individual to individual, and that students can construct different relationships between study and part-time work.…”

Flexibility, compromise and opportunity: Students' perceptions of balancing part-time work with a full-time business degree

“…Nonetheless, the literature remains inconclusive, and Green and Jacques (2001) found no relationship between part-time work and students' academic performance. In the UK, Ford et al (1995) and Hodgson & Spours (2001) both accept that individuals will manage the balance of work and study differently, with some managing their time effectively while others struggle to cope with the demands of both.…”

Multitasking, but for what benefit? The dilemma facing Nigerian university students regarding part-time working

“…Evans et al, 2014, Ford et al, 1995, Richardson et al, 2009), few have actually followed this up with finding out from students who do not work part-time, the reasons that underpin this decision (see for example, Hodgson and Spours, 2001). In this study, we asked students who do not work part-time, why they do not.…”