University Season Part 4: Working part time as a student in the UK

OK back to our university season - a brief break from the Olympics! Let's talk about working part time whilst you are a student in the UK. I will begin with a few facts. Many students work part time in the UK, far more so than in Singapore. It is very common indeed and they do so for two reasons mainly. Firstly, they want the money. Secondly, it can demonstrate some work experience and prove that you can juggle work and studies effectively.

Foreign students are allowed to work 20 hours a week during term time - this cap is there to prevent foreign students from abusing the status of their student visas. In the past, it was possible could circumvent the work permit system by coming here as a student and then work 40 hours a week - hence this mandatory 20 hour cap was put in place to prevent abuse of the student visa system. After all, if you are a student, 20 hours is already quite a lot. That would effectively mean working through the weekend plus a few hours in the week to hit that limit of 20 hours. However, there are no restrictions during your school holidays and you would be able to do work placements as part of your course. Once you are here as a foreign student, there is no distinction between you and a local or EU worker looking for part time job. The only distinction is between those who have the legal right to work in the UK and those who don't (ie. illegal immigrants) - and foreign students clearly fall into the former category.

Yes you really should find a part time job as a student.

As a foreign student, you need to get a "national insurance number" before you start working and that is simply to prove that you have the right to work in this country. It's fairly straight forward and you just need to go to your local Job Centre Plus with prove of ID and your student visa in hand and they will make you fill up a few forms.

I have been asked if the work is mainly for that at minimum wage - which is £6.08 for adults aged over 21 (this will rise to £6.19 by October 2012) but £4.98 for those aged between 18-20. What kind of jobs fall into the 'minimum wage' category? Well, I could write a list here but there's a simple rule that you can use to work it out. If it's all muscle power (ie. menial work) and no brain power, then it's more than likely to be minimum wage. So for example, unloading goods off a truck and carrying it into the warehouse - that's menial work, so that's going to be minimum wage. If it involves a bit of brain power but not much, then it'll be slightly more than minimum wage but not much more - ie. between £6 and £10. An example of a job that pays around £8.50 would be that of an office temp working as a receptionist. So you need to answer the phone, take down messages, direct calls to the right people, maybe do some simple office tasks like filing, sorting the mail or photocopying. Now that's brain power and not muscle power - but again, it's not rocket science, so you'll get paid around £8 or £9 an hour for that kind of work.

Office admin work can be boring. 

How do you get above £10? Simple. Brain power. Let me give you an example - this woman charges £45 an hour for Mandarin private tuition (one on one). OK the prices do go down if book many lessons with her but you get the idea. Why is she so expensive? We're taping into more than one kind of skill - her language skills and her teaching skills. That's why she gets away with charging £45 an hour. Mandarin is becoming quite popular in the UK and if you are fluent in Mandarin and able to teach it, then it is probably the best way to make well over £10 an hour.

Other students who earn more than £20 an hour tend to be some kind of teacher or instructor. I know a student who does one-on-one private yoga lessons for rich executives. She would go to the offices of these rich people who are too busy to go to the gym but they have like 45 mins in the day free for a yoga lesson. So my friend would turn up with the yoga mat and give the yoga lesson in the office - and that's £40 for a private yoga lesson (but she offers a discount if you book a block of 9 lessons she throws in the tenth lesson for free). There is also another banker friend of mine who has a personal trainer come to his office and give him a lunchtime work out every day and he pays around £30 a lesson as well.

Yoga in the office, anyone?

Now I also know another guy who is a very dancer and he teaches at "after school clubs" (aka ECA/CCA in Singapore). There is usually a few hours gap between when school ends and when the parents come home from work - so often schools will have all kinds of sports and arts activities to keep the students occupied in school in those few hours. My friend goes in there and teachers the kids how to dance - and he gets about £20 - £25 an hour for that. Another friend does the same thing, teaches the after school club kids how to sing in a choir - same price range.

There is another student I know how helps build websites - he does this in his free time and is paid per project (rather than per hour). It varies depending on how much work he gets, how complex the websites are etc - but he can over £1000 for a website and it could take him a few weeks to build it (working only evenings & weekends of course).

So this begs the question: why do so many students settle for minimum wage jobs and so few actually get paid £30 - £40 an hour? Just think about it, even if you are paid £7 an hour, a yoga teacher who charges £35 a lesson can make than quite easily in an hour whilst you would be slogging away for 5 hours to make the same money at £7 an hour.

Waiters don't get paid much more than minimum wage in the UK.

It's simple. Not many students are skilled enough in a particular field to command over £10 an hour with their "brain power" - hence they are treated as unskilled labourers. How many of you can build a great website at the age of 21? Or teach a class of students how to play a musical instrument? Indeed, the best paid part time jobs tend to be associated with teaching - but some of these require you to have some kind of teaching qualification before you are allowed in front of a class of students. So if you wanted to work in a school for example, they would be quite strict about that especially when it came to public liability insurance: so say a child falls and breaks her leg during the dance or yoga lesson and the parents want to sue the teacher, do you have insurance which covers mishaps like that?

However, there are areas which are far less regulated - such as personal training and personal tuition where it tends to be cash in hand. These are also areas you can get away with teaching without any formal qualifications! However, you're far more exposed. So if a school refuses to pay you for the lessons you've given, you can sue them for breach of contract. But if a client refuses to pay you for tuition because they're not happy with your teaching methods, it is far more difficult to resolve a case like that. Normally, I would only suggest you take on these personal one-on-one work only with people you know, or if they are at least friends of friends, rather than complete strangers. Likewise, in the field of IT, as long as you get the work done, nobody cares what formal qualifications you have for a lot of IT experts are self-taught and you're usually paid upon completion of the task, rather than for your time.

There is usually a lot of low-paid jobs and very few well paid jobs for students - this is mostly because well-paid jobs take a certain amount of commitment. Say you are teaching conversational Mandarin at an after school club in a posh private school for rich kids, the school will demand that you commit to turning up every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 pm without fail - can you fulfil that requirement? That means even if you are unwell or if you have a lot of work for university, you are expected to somehow still appear at 3 pm and give that lesson. Also, you need to know your students' strengths and weaknesses, understand how they are coming along - this is something that is a long-term commitment. Imagine if a different teacher turns up every week with no idea how good or bad each student is in the language. Hence there is a lot of responsibility involved with a commitment like that and that is why they're willing to pay you good money.

You may speak Mandarin but can you teach it? 

Let's contrast that with a low-paid unskilled job: waiters. If you don't turn up for work, it's no big deal - there's no continuity. It doesn't even matter if the person who brings you your food is not the same person who took your order - as long as the food is good! Waiters are interchangable and easily replaceable. That is why they are paid around or barely above minimum wage, though good waiters can get some tips to supplement their income and they are often get free meals and drinks at work.

The last category I wish to cover is sales - there are some part time jobs which involve selling directly to the public, this could be a range of things but let me use an example that I know. My friend Lydia is a stunningly beautiful model/dancer/actress and she works part time as a cosmetics promoter. The brand of cosmetics she works for is a relatively small player in the industry and they would set Lydia up with a small booth in a shopping centre where she would offer ladies a free sample and talk about how the make up products would make them look radiant and sexy. The sales pitch is simple, "use this product and you can look as beautiful as me." It works - she gets a small commission for every product she sells to the public and on a good day, she can make several hundred pounds in a few hours. Lydia only really works when the malls are busy, so that means evenings and weekends, rather than 9:30 am on a Monday morning when the mall is very quiet. In a good week, she can make a few thousand pounds - not bad for a part time job!

Excuse me, hi! Would you like to try this new lipstick? 

Where do you get such good part time jobs I hear you asking - well to begin with, there are various internet websites dedicated to student jobs. However, you should also be proactive in finding such work - for example, if there is a local school near where you live and you're interested in teaching conversational Mandarin, why not give them a call and find out if they have such a programme and if not, ask them why not and tell them why their students really must learn Mandarin today! Likewise, network a lot, let your friends know what your skills are and that you're available for part time work. Don't be afraid to ask them for help and ask for work - if you don't ask, you don't get. It's that simple.

So for Singaporean students coming to the UK, here is a check list of skills that could get you reasonably well paid part time work, ie. that in the >£10 per hour "brain power" category. Needless to say, you need to be an expert in any of these skills - so if you want to teach Mandarin, you have to be excellent in Chinese. Don't expect to command "brain power" money if you are not an expert.

1. Languages, particularly Mandarin
2. Anything to do with musical instruments, music or the performing arts in general
3. Anything to do with sports & fitness
4. IT skills
5. Sales & marketing skills 

Searching for a good part time job is not easy. 

I would strongly encourage you to at least try to look for part time work which involve brain power, for the simple reason that most of you would get incredibly bored with menial, repetitive tasks that do not engage the brain much. Don't settle for low-paid menial tasks on minimum wage just because other students settle for them - did it occur to you that perhaps they don't have the same kinds of special skills that you do? Lastly, don't be disheartened if your first part time job doesn't pay £40 an hour - such jobs are not easy to find and it will take time for you to find a good part time job like that.  Keep your chin up, keep looking and maybe try a lower paid part time job in the meantime. Needless to say, once you do find a good job, make sure you perform well so you can keep it for there will be other students after that job!

OK, so that's it for now from me on this topic. If you have any other questions, let me know. 

 

If you haven't checked out the rest of my series on the university season, please click here: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/akan-datang-preparing-for-university.html