VCE And Part Time Job - What Do You Think?

[Liviam]

I had a part time job as a check out chick while I did Year 11 and 12. I passed well and it really did help with my organisation. Plus I loved having some money to spend on myself.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I had a job while doing my A-Levels. I'd rather have not done that, but my parents insisted. In hindsight, it didn't damage me any.

TBH, a check-out chick job in a quiet-ish local shop meant that I could take my revision notes in and go through those on the quiet parts of the afternoon. It meant that I could also chat about the "scary" biochemical pathway pictures to interested customers, which was great for my revision (put it like this, over 10 years on I can still picture some of this, and I've not used it since my A-levels).

[Pandora]

I actaully dont see the difference in giving her no money at all, and forcing her to get a job - same end different means, at least til her next report.

My experience was the opposite - I was not allowed to get a part time job while I was at high school, my parents thought it would be too much or a distraction from studying - which did take 5-7 hours some nights but I was studying an overloaded timetable in year twelve with additional subjects.

When I went to uni, the course I did paid a stipend. My parents expected me to save half of this, and still not get a part time job ( they were paying my uni fees ). I didnt though I lived off all of it. In hindsight I probably could have saved a bit but half was a bit of an ask.

Anyway my point is, when I finished my degree and was applying for jobs, I had no work history at all, and I reckon 90% of the others in my course had worked or were working. I had wanted to work so I felt mightily ripped off.

Im not sure whether its changed but some of the bigger employers (coles, woollies) had limits on the number of hours and the timing of shifts for students, esp in VCE so it would be worth looking in to.

FWIW my closest friend at high school, was dux and she worked at maccas since she was legally old enough to, and continued to through her law/arts degree.

[e_p]

Neither of my parents finished high school and weren't overly supportive of my education beyond 'you should do homework because you just should'. I had no idea what I wanted to do after school. My parents didn't give me any pocket money and I only really wore second hand clothes (my parents didn't have heaps of money to spare) except for a pair of runners and school shoes each year. I was doing ok at school...and was involved in a few extra-curricular things but my results/reports didn't dazzle anyone.

When I was 14y9m my parents forced me to get a job...to the point where my mum dragged me to the local IGA and asked them to give me a job. I did not want a job. At all. In fact, I was mortified. But, I did start work and actually really enjoyed it - the pay was rubbish (well below award wage - I wish my mum chose somewhere where I wouldn't get ripped off!) but it was still good to have some of my own money. My dad encouraged me to put a little bit away each week in a savings account.

I really grew up - I became a lot more mature a lot more often. All of a sudden, I had to be organised and responsible for stuff - show up at work on time, do my job, let the boss know in advance if I had something on and wasn't going to be available. I started thinking about what I wanted to do after school.

I started doing really well at school. I ended up taking on an extra job in year 12 - I set up my own tutoring 'business' which I did 2 days a week after school, plus 2 nights waitressing. I did lots of extra-curricular stuff...in fact, it was rare that I was home during the week before 6pm. I used to try and make sure I had my weekends free and mostly I did, to socialise a bit and do some study. I was busy - and liked it. Exam time would get stressful sometimes but I could always take a few days off work to relax or focus on school if I need to (most employers understand this).

I ended up with really good results - in the top 1% of my state - and gained university entry with a scholarship to a competitive course at a prestigious Uni. I had money saved because I'd been consistently putting some aside and was able to buy all my own books, buy things that I liked and covered most of my expenses to move interstate.

This is just my experience - I'm really grateful that my parents encouraged (well, forced) me to have a casual job - when some of my friends that had never worked moved out of home they found it really hard to find a job because they had -no- experience or skills whatsoever. Having said that, I would have found it really helpful if my parents sat down with me and asked me what my goals were, what inspired me, what I thought I might like to do and helped me to work out ways of achieving that. Your daughter might want to be a hairdresser, in which case looking at pre-app courses might be the best option for her...or she might want to be a lawyer in which case you'll need to help her structure her time so she starts putting some more effort into academics! Having said that, if my parents asked me before the age of 17 I would have had no idea.

I think it can be really beneficial - most employers are understanding of young people who are studying and are accommodating of that.