Part-time Employment and Effects on Australian Social Work Students: A Report on a National Study

Abstract

University students, nationally as well as internationally, engage in employment to supplement income while studying. Social work students are no different in this respect. There have long been questions about whether such part-time work has an adverse impact on student academic performance. This paper explored the experiences of social work students enrolled on-campus across three Australian universities as reported through a survey and focus groups. The research found that social work students did engage in significant amounts of paid employment while studying, that there were both positives and negatives for students depending on the nature of their employment, and that compromises needed to be made in juggling competing responsibilities. Accessing and living on inadequate government benefits imposed particular stressors. The findings have implications for the ways in which social work education is structured, especially in terms of flexibility, and demonstrated that part-time work also offers opportunities for student learning.

Abstract

Keywords:

• Education
• Field Education Placements
• Work
• Social Work Students

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with funding provided by a Wendy Weeks Research Grant from the Australian Association of Social Work and Welfare Education. Thanks are also extended to Desley Sherrin for her work as a research assistant on this study.

The article is based on a paper presented at the “Strength in Unity” (Australian Association of Social Workers [AASW]/Australian Institute of Welfare and Community Workers [AIWCW]/Australian Association of Social Work and Welfare Education [AASWWE]) Conference, Luna Park, Sydney, 9–12 November, 2008.

Notes

¹Students were advised that they could maintain the anonymity of their questionnaire by removing the invitation from the rest of the pages.

²The measures include (a) the age of students who could receive Youth Allowance and Abstudy payments would be progressively reduced over three years from 25 to 22 years; (b) recipients of these payments would be able to earn $400 a fortnight (up from $236 per fortnight preBudget) without having the payments reduced; (c) the parental income test threshold of those applying for payments would increase from $32,800 to $42,559 (DEEWR, 2009).