Executive Summary
Following a survey of school pupils concerning their part-time jobs, 110 businesses named by school pupils as their employers were contacted and asked to participate in a survey of employers' views and practices. Forty two interviews eventually took place. Large companies and hairdressers are not represented because of their unwillingness to cooperate. Businesses taking part have been categorised according to the work undertaken by the school pupils, namely Delivery (4), Retail (13) Hotel and Catering (12) and Miscellaneous (13).
Recruitment: Few employers advertise for school pupils. Informal 'word-of-mouth' channels are used and some pupils pro-actively contact employers to seek employment.
Why employ school pupils? Some employers stress the flexibility and availability of young people, especially their willingness to work at times which are unpopular with adults. Employers in Hotel and Catering often have difficulty finding adult employees. In Delivery and Retail, the relative cheapness of employing young people is a factor.
Links with school: Many employers in the Miscellaneous category had been involved in Work Experience programmes, but this was much less common in the other sectors.
Value of part-time employment: Most employers saw part-time jobs as being beneficial to the school pupils. Employers tended not to value Work Experience programmes as highly as paid employment.
Formal recognition of part-time employment: Most employers were favourably disposed towards the possibility of school pupils' jobs being formally recognised. They also anticipated that they would take account of part-time employment if it were formally recorded as part of an applicant's educational attainments.
Contracts: Just over half of the employers had contracts with school pupil employees but this was more common with 16-18 year old pupils.
Training: Most employers claimed to give young workers initial training and a large minority gave further on-going training. However the extent of training varied considerably, from merely showing a delivery route to a new delivery person to attendance at certificate courses in health hygiene.
Regulation of the employment of under-16s: Most employers showed little awareness of national laws and local byelaws concerning work permits. Most favoured the idea that employers rather than children should be registered. However, some were concerned that the system might be bureaucratic and expensive.