Student employment: a report to work better

Student employment and its consequences for seamless university studies is indeed a “major concern” for the ministry responsible for higher education. With this goal in mind, the report will contribute to “developing a strategy to promote the development of private and public employment for students”.

Working and studying: a common situation

Student employment during studies has become “a common feature of university life” in that, as the authors of the report write, “in Europe as in France, a high proportion of the student population (from a quarter to more than half depending on the country) combines studies and employment on a more or less regular basis”. In its initial mission, the report endeavours to propose supporting actions and measures to favours the recruitment of students on campus, while specifying that this type of employment, in institutions and in the CROUS, concerns only 1.4% of the student population. This is therefore a broader approach with an emphasis on student work, “considered in its diversity and within the dynamics of academic career paths”.

Work and academic success

The report on student employment underlines that students obviously find a source of income in secondary and paid work, but also “the acquisition of valuable skills during their professional integration”. In this sense, for the Ministry, there is a real “equality issue” in terms of access to “jobs compatible with studies” that comply with “an academic career”. The report states indeed that “student employment doesn’t impact academic success when it doesn’t exceed a certain number of hours per week (8 to 15 hours)”. If such conditions are met, “compatibility with studies and student demand for jobs” is ensured, particularly within higher education institutions when they offer paid work to students.

Motivation and working time

These observations have, however, a counterpoint, as states a “survey on self-employment of young people in France” recently conducted by a platform specialised in student jobs. Not surprisingly, the study says that a majority of students work to “provide for daily needs: rent and food (51%), as well as studies (34%)”. Only a minority of them (13%) chose to work to finance their leisure time. It should be noted, however, that for nearly two thirds of those surveyed (65%), “the objective is to work more than 20 hours a week”.

Research and organisation

The survey also indicates that the need to find an activity encourages students to use “all the channels available to them”. It is with this in mind that the government platform etudiant.gouv.fr provides numerous leads to “find a student job”. The website lists the various sources of information that exist to help students in their search, emphasising that this search “requires a great deal of motivation and organisation”! International students also have, with the France Alumni network, a platform that allows them to look for a job or an internship and to find advice to build their professional project in France or abroad.