This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/16/teenagers-homework-saturday-job-study

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Dear teenagers, you’ll learn more from a Saturday job than your schoolwork Dear teenagers, you’ll learn more from a Saturday job than extra homework
(35 minutes later)
My worst Saturday job was working for a budget shoe chain, for £2.12 an hour, where I spent most of my shift stretching Velcro around bunions and attempting to upsell protective suede spray. I could press the toe of a trainer and know instantly if it was going to rub, and I started to hear the words “Are you alright for tights?” in my sleep. It’s an experience a 16-year-old is unlikely to have these days, partly because you can no longer get away with paying anyone £2.12 an hour, but largely because teenagers don’t have Saturday jobs now. A new report from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (Ukces) suggests that the number of teenagers in work has more than halved, from 42% of 16- and 17-year-olds in 1996, to just 18% today. Disappointingly, this decrease is attributed to young people wanting to “concentrate on their studies”.My worst Saturday job was working for a budget shoe chain, for £2.12 an hour, where I spent most of my shift stretching Velcro around bunions and attempting to upsell protective suede spray. I could press the toe of a trainer and know instantly if it was going to rub, and I started to hear the words “Are you alright for tights?” in my sleep. It’s an experience a 16-year-old is unlikely to have these days, partly because you can no longer get away with paying anyone £2.12 an hour, but largely because teenagers don’t have Saturday jobs now. A new report from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (Ukces) suggests that the number of teenagers in work has more than halved, from 42% of 16- and 17-year-olds in 1996, to just 18% today. Disappointingly, this decrease is attributed to young people wanting to “concentrate on their studies”.
On a fruit and veg stall, I learned the important skill of making small talk with strangersOn a fruit and veg stall, I learned the important skill of making small talk with strangers
It should be heartening to think of a generation so dedicated to academic excellence that they feel their Saturdays would be better served by holing up with books but, at the risk of sounding like an old man from 1937, there are some things that can only be learned from living. And now definitely sounding like an old man from 1937, I got my first job when I was 13, on a fruit and veg stall, in February, where I earned a tenner for a morning’s work. I quickly learned how to price up a quarter of mushrooms, 5lb of potatoes, a box of tomatoes and a bag of Granny Smiths without a notepad. Not particularly well, I should add, because I was sacked after a few weeks, for overcharging a curmudgeonly regular for a weekly shop she knew far better than I did. I had learned the more important skills of making small talk with strangers, though, and how to get sacked with dignity. (It’s all about the poker face.)It should be heartening to think of a generation so dedicated to academic excellence that they feel their Saturdays would be better served by holing up with books but, at the risk of sounding like an old man from 1937, there are some things that can only be learned from living. And now definitely sounding like an old man from 1937, I got my first job when I was 13, on a fruit and veg stall, in February, where I earned a tenner for a morning’s work. I quickly learned how to price up a quarter of mushrooms, 5lb of potatoes, a box of tomatoes and a bag of Granny Smiths without a notepad. Not particularly well, I should add, because I was sacked after a few weeks, for overcharging a curmudgeonly regular for a weekly shop she knew far better than I did. I had learned the more important skills of making small talk with strangers, though, and how to get sacked with dignity. (It’s all about the poker face.)
There was the paper round, which didn’t teach me much in the way of business, except that glossy leaflets for supermarket discounts are surprisingly heavy in their hundreds, and that sometimes lonely people want to talk to whoever is passing. It did give me three lovely hours of listening to mix-tapes on a Saturday morning, and enough money to buy a CD every couple of weeks. Was this more useful for the years that I subsequently spent as a music journalist than the AQA poetry anthology or a GCSE in statistics? It’s on a par, at least. I did waitressing and catering and bar work, which taught me how to deal with complaints, how to handle drunks, how to handle pervy drunks, and how to make hundreds of cheese-and-pineapple-on-sticks efficiently (pineapple first, then the cheese). Again, all surprisingly useful for a career in the music industry.There was the paper round, which didn’t teach me much in the way of business, except that glossy leaflets for supermarket discounts are surprisingly heavy in their hundreds, and that sometimes lonely people want to talk to whoever is passing. It did give me three lovely hours of listening to mix-tapes on a Saturday morning, and enough money to buy a CD every couple of weeks. Was this more useful for the years that I subsequently spent as a music journalist than the AQA poetry anthology or a GCSE in statistics? It’s on a par, at least. I did waitressing and catering and bar work, which taught me how to deal with complaints, how to handle drunks, how to handle pervy drunks, and how to make hundreds of cheese-and-pineapple-on-sticks efficiently (pineapple first, then the cheese). Again, all surprisingly useful for a career in the music industry.
Related: Saturday jobs ‘can damage exam grades for teenagers’Related: Saturday jobs ‘can damage exam grades for teenagers’
Of course, in an economic climate that shafts the many to better the few, it is crucial, in many jobs, to have an academic head start. For those who are not born into privilege, and for some who are, that involves hard graft, doing well at school, hitting the targets, getting those results. The Ukces report suggests that a “fear of not doing well” is driving this decline in part-time work.Of course, in an economic climate that shafts the many to better the few, it is crucial, in many jobs, to have an academic head start. For those who are not born into privilege, and for some who are, that involves hard graft, doing well at school, hitting the targets, getting those results. The Ukces report suggests that a “fear of not doing well” is driving this decline in part-time work.
I feel for the teenagers under that kind of pressure, and I can understand why a zero-hours contract at Sports Direct might not be the priority. I am also aware that there are practical factors involved in whether a job is necessary that are far less sentimental than what I am about to say. But, despite the bunions and the mushrooms and the men who whistled in the pub to get my attention, I am so glad I spent my teenage weekends working. I learned more about people, about how they are, what they want and how they can be, from the kitchens and the bar and the shopfloor, than I ever did from the classroom.I feel for the teenagers under that kind of pressure, and I can understand why a zero-hours contract at Sports Direct might not be the priority. I am also aware that there are practical factors involved in whether a job is necessary that are far less sentimental than what I am about to say. But, despite the bunions and the mushrooms and the men who whistled in the pub to get my attention, I am so glad I spent my teenage weekends working. I learned more about people, about how they are, what they want and how they can be, from the kitchens and the bar and the shopfloor, than I ever did from the classroom.