PART-TIME JOBS FOR STUDENTS AND AN EVALUATION

INTRODUCTION

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overall and looks like work”-Thomas Edison.

Without working hard success cannot be achieved. Youth is the time of working and youth represented by students. Part-time job works as a first step of starting to work, dream and leads one towards a better life. Working alongside studies is beneficial for students. In the article “Importance of Parttime employment” Paul Hubert Casselman asserts that students are one of the major parts of part-time employment and it is also helps to students to be experienced. Money is a major factor working part-time but experiences which students gather through the job cannot be ignored said by Casselman (349). Part-time job means people do not need to occupy themselves for the whole day but more or less they will enjoy the benefits of having a job. In the broad sense, part-time employment includes all paid work performed in addition to a full-time job or occupation; it generally excludes seasonal employment or employment which recurs at certain times of the year, such as summer or Christmas holiday work by students or teachers (Casselman 347). Basically part-time job is just the thing for students. It is very much popular among students. Generally a person started to learn after his birth, but lesson and experience of youth is the main pillar of one’s career and life. As we all know adolescent is the time when most students went in the wrong direction. When one does not use the free time to do something productive, only then a person got attracted to wrong things. Age of adolescent is very crucial for every person.

That is why it is must engage students in the works. If one loves one’s work, then it would not be a just work anymore. In fact that work will be a source of happiness. The trend of part-time job is very common in abroad, whereas it is pretty new in Bangladesh. An international data show that works twenty hours a week or less than twenty hours do not have any bad impact on studies (Anderson and Media). Anderson and media also mentioned that working parttime, teaches students time management skill and organization and also make them practice in multitasking and teaches them how to work on a team, interview etiquettes etc. At present having a part-time job is kind of a part of a student’s life, but it was not imaginable about 6/7 years ago in Bangladesh (Sarah and et al). It is not the only way of making money, but also a process which shaping a person and his talent gradually. Working part-time jobs help students to build up their characters and teach them about responsibility and accountability said by Anderson and Media and the U.S College board also agrees with it. More than half of students of a university work as part-time employees. In the Bangladesh context private tuition was the one and only part-time job, but now the area of par-time job sectors has expanded a great deal. I have done my research using quantitative and quantitative method. I have done an online survey among students and different group of people. In addition, I have taken interviews of ten students; some of them are engaged in part-time job and some of are not.

All responses were confidential and anonymous. Almost 95 percent of those contacted agreed to participate, and filled out usable questionnaires. There were 25 employed students among 30 students. Most of the students are customer service employees, private tutor and fast-food employees. Since it is four months course, time was limited. This is why I could not gather numerous responses and interviews. All in all, I am doing my research on the impact of part-time jobs on students. Especially I am focusing on Bangladeshi students. Even if part-time job is very popular among students, but from previous research I have found that most of the parents and teachers used to think part-time jobs hamper studies. This is the only negative side of part-time job and it can be changed if one knows time-management. Studies and job can be balanced together. In addition, my research will explore the scope of part-time job in the Bangladesh. The aim of my research is to explore whether money is the only factor behind choosing part-time job.I want to find out about the other benefits of part-time job. Afterwards, students gather many experiences which can help them in future. In this paper, I will try to analyze how a part-time job is beneficial for students and how it teaches them about time management, discipline and shape their talents and helps to make them social person.

This paper is organized as follows: The next section briefly discussed about literature review, chapter 3 describes data collection, chapter 4 dissects data and explains why part-time job is beneficial for students and chapter 5 concludes the paper. Literature Review: Working part-time is becoming a common practice in Bangladesh. Just a few years back scenario of Bangladesh has been students only focus on their studies but not anymore. For present university students have taken part-time jobs as a part of their study. Since it is a very recent issue, it has not been researched a lot. Very few people have researched on this topic and some articles are available, but no one has written any book in Bangladesh context. There are two kinds of jobs for students; one is on campus job another one is off campus. T.A, part-time librarian, campus cafe, etc. are on campus job and working at pizza hut, kfc, customer services are listed under off campus job. Opportunities and sectors of working part-time are quite expanded nowa-days. Private tuition is the first and foremost step of part-time job in Bangladesh. Gradually sectors of part-time job have increased. The concept of private tuition has started from our father and grandfather’s era and that it was known as lodging master (Sarah and et al n.p.).

However, students most now willingly do work alongside study. In 2006- 7, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) conducted a survey on private educational institutions in the country. Coaching Centre was one of the 31 types of such educational institutions covered by the survey and a total of 5,499 coaching centers were identified, the majority being located in urban areas. Samir Ranjan Nath mentioned in his article that the ratio of full and part time employees in these centers was 60:40 in a total of 1 lakh 12 thousand (1). These coaching centers are mainly run by some college and mostly university students. Basically teaching helps one’s to know more and polish one’s knowledge. Besides coaching centers, there are others sectors of jobs students are offered to do. If the job is related to one’s study, then the job can be helpful for students. In the article “Fast food shops offers students, part-time jobs” Murshed claims that there are many students out there who want to do work, but the scope is very limited; it was scenario of 2005 in Bangladesh (n.p.). Now the picture has changed a lot and the field of part-time jobs has expanded at great deals. Shama Zianab Ali, a professor from architect department said that, many architect students work on a farm in their vacation and it is very beneficial for their studies(Sarah and et al n.p.). Working parttime does not affect study if the working hour is less than 20 hours. According to Gary R. Pike, working more than 20 hours in a weak has a negative impact on the student’s grades, but working 20 hours or less than 20 hours do not affect the study (Leaderman). In fact, almost every university offers a part-time job named “TA” which only high CGPA holder students are allowed to apply (Sarah and et al n.p.). In the article “Earn while studies” authors asserts Part-time job helps students to be responsible and social (n.p.). Furthermore, Sarah and others mentioned about another field of part job “customer service” or call center (n.p.).

Since it is an hour based job students can easily manage time for this job (n.p.). Diya and others points out that in Bengali culture, our status is part of our identity and some parents consider working part-time decreases their status (n.p.). Many students are out there who do job to contribute in their family finance (Murshed n.p.). In other studies, it was mentioned that the desire of being independent is the major factor of students doing part-time job (Murshed n.p.). Do the work what you love to do; once you started to enjoy the work, then work will not remain just work; it will become you happiness asserts by Promiti Prova Chowdhury (n.p.). On the contrary, part-time jobs can destroy one’s career and study. Some environment of working places is not friendly for students. Job in bar, pub or places like these are harmful for students. Sometimes they got bad company here and rather than investing their time in productive work, they kill their time and also get involved in illegal works. In addition, money is the major factor in par-time job; this is why some students tend to think if they can make money without having any degree then what is the point of working hard for study? Ultimately, after getting a degree people start working for money, which anyone can do without a degree. That is why gradually they lose the desire of studying. Researchers Herbert Marsh and Sabina found that working part-time declines students’ grades, their academic and career goals get lower and most importantly they likely to miss the classes (Qtd. In Anderson and Media n.p. ). Furthermore, high school students who work part-time became unsocial and sometimes they felt left out and isolated from friends; found in another study (Anderson and Media n.p.). As has been stated earlier that it depends on the person how one balanced both study and job together. Selina Mccoy and et all also agreed to this that if one wants to do job then that person will definitely manage time job without hampering study (58).

DATA COLLECTION

The data were taken from undergraduate students and it was an online survey. Since time was limited, paper does not contain many responses. The respondents are students and also part-time employees. I have collected two types’ data, one is questionnaires and another one is interviewing. Questionnaires were obtained among those students who are part-time employers and interviews were taken among part-time students and full-time students. This survey conducted among 40 students. The respondents of this paper are more or less in favor of working part-time. It is considered by some people study hampers because of part-time job. But 81.1% respondents agreed that study and job can be balanced together without hampering one of it. Almost 56.8% students work four hours a day and none of the respondents work more than six hours a day. Other important information comes out from the survey that money is not the only key factor of working part-time jobs; alongside skills and experience are also reasons for part-time employment. 67.6% respondents agreed that part-time job helps them to make contacts in corporate world for their future career. Most undergraduate students are likely to have part-time jobs alongside their studies. In figure 1, figure 2 and figure 3, I will show the graph of respondents who agreed that part-time job helps students and make them prepare for the future.

Besides all this, I have taken interviews of two groups. Almost every respondent asserts that undoubtedly part-time job is beneficial for students. The sector of part-time jobs is very wide open now. Though most of the students are likely to work as a private tutor and customer service holder; but some of them made their passion, hobby as a parttime job. For instance, some of my respondents states that in the first place photography were just a hobby, but it has become their part-time profession. In the beginning, it might be difficult to balance study and job together, but if one really wants to do the both things they can manage time claimed by one of my respondents. However, it has some drawbacks such as less interest in attending a class, student can spoil because of money. The benefits of pattime work is more than the drawbacks and those drawbacks can be solved if one uses their scope of part-time work rather than misusing.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the survey show that almost 85% respondents are working part-time alongside their studies. According to the respondents part-time works is a period of training for their future career. After doing this survey I have found that compared to previous situation students are more interested in part-time job now. It is also interesting to note that, some students are holding more than one job for instance private tuition and photography, photography and online business, etc. According to the data most of the students are likely to have a customer services job or private tuitions. After analyzing the data and interviews I have come to the point that parttime employment has some significant benefits. Those are:-

SOCIAL BENEFITS

Part-time employments help students socially. It helps them to improve their social ability. One of the respondents asserts that after got a part-time job, he has learned social etiquettes. Through the training period of customer service a student learns how to deal with customer, how to talk to people and also it teaches how to behave at formal situation. Another respondent claimed that his communication skill improves a lot after joined in KFC, one of the popular fast-foods in the world. Basically trainings help students to gather these social skills. Usually, educational institutions do not give extra focus on these skills; this is why work alongside study has proven beneficial for students.

EMPLOYER BENEFITS

Now-a-days, employers also want to recruit students. Those days had gone when people cannot even think of taking a job during academic performances. In the article “ Working Students: One step Ahead” Promiti Prova asserts that students has demand for part-time works, companies, restaurant owners wants hire educated employees;especially students (2). Since foreign customers often come to food chain shops and restaurants, so it is important for employees to be educated to communicate with customers. Part-time jobs are not only the source of income, but also making a place for students in the corporate world.

LIFE-CHANGING BENEFITS

Basically, life-changing benefits are more in working part-time. Part-time employment makes one life disciplined. Starting from time management students learn very little and important things about the corporate world and practical life in part-time jobs. Around 78% respondents agreed that parttime employments help to boost up their confidence. Afterwards, working part-time nailed one’s skills, talents and makes them better. Furthermore, One of my respondents mentioned that, this generation has more or less desire for new gadgets which are quite expensive; by working part-time students can easily fulfill their little desires and demands. Since education expense is increasing gradually, it will be an extra burden for parents to fulfill children’s luxurious wishes. Besides all these, it is also teach a person how to work under stress and pressure. Students learned to adapt new things while working. Students also get to learn how to participate in teamwork, improve problem solving skills, etc. Most importantly, after having a job students learn budgeting and spend their money wisely. Another best part of part-time employment is experiences which students gather throughout their jobs and implement in their future career. Moreover, part-time employments build up students’ character and make them responsible and independent.

RECOMMENDATION

Undoubtedly, Part-time job is beneficial for students, but it has some drawbacks also. Parents and teacher often complain that, because of part-time job students pay less attention in the study, declines students’ grades and also less attendance in class. As a result student loses their main goal and went on a wrong track. All these problems can be solved if students and parents get little conscious about this. Students can discuss about the job with their parents, which they want to do. Parents, teachers or whoever is the mentor of a student can check whether the job is beneficial for students or not. Furthermore, parents can help students to make a daily routine so that they can easily balanced study and job together.

CONCLUSION

Do what you love. Only then work will not be just a work, it will become one’s happiness. Everyone dreams of what one wants to be. To make dreams real part-time job is the first step of entire stairs. If one can make the first step correctly, then it can be proven as a turning of one’s career. Since mostly undergraduate students are the major part of part-time employments, it is very advantageous for them. After graduation, students run after a good job. Part-time employments help students to find a good job and prepare them in advance for the job. Before entering a full-time job, it is really helpful for any person to know every pros and cons of the corporate world. At university level, students do not have to spend the whole time in the university. They can easily manage three or four hours for some productive works. Usually they get free time after classes, but rather than using their time, they misuse time. People complain about lower grades, less attendance in class because of part-time job. But those students who are full-time students are they studying whole day? I guess the is no. If a student can manage his time for computer games or Facebooking, then is it so difficult to make time for parttime job which actually going to help him in the future. Parents can help out students and most importantly, they should be supportive and encourage them for part-time employment. All in all, Part-time jobs help students in every way, not only just help to manage the pocket money but also make them a better person by shaping their skill and talents. So, part-time jobs can be a right decision and a great experience with right supervision, parents little guidance and knowledge of time-management.