Got my eldest son doing his GCSE’s this year and he is keen on getting summer work.
I spent the same summer industrial cleaning, crawling through machines and ventilation shafts. Great fun and an eye opening experience.
I am assuming such options would be off the table as presumably you need to be 18 to work in factories etc?
Other options are working in the service sector waiting tables or flipping burgers.
Anyone got any ideas on options before he starts A-levels?
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Not a Summer job as such but has he/you thought about NCS? Should be able to fit it in AND a Summer job too. My younger daughter did her GCSEs last year and managed to fit in 4 week NCS plus a "shop assistant" type job at M&S. She really enjoyed both and as you say, was an eye-opener for her too.
http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/what-is-ncs
Add : She still works at M&S on weekends and during holidays whilst in Sixth Form.
Try some local farms - I spent a couple of summers rogueing (wandering up and down tramlines pulling out wild oats) when I was his age.
So clever my foot fell off.
There can be insurance issues for youngun's working places but generally he'll be fine at 16+
Try to get him into a trade. Labouring for a builder, sweeping up at a garage, anything like that.
He'll get a taste of a life very different to academia. He might also learn some new swear words too.
Certain office-based companies are happy to have helping hands during the summer.
I remember my old firm hired a load of college students over the summer hols to help us go through the move to paperless.
10 kids spent 8 hours a day for 4 weeks scanning every file on to the system.
Not exciting but the pay was OK for such menial work.
Try smaller accounting firms etc.
Any manual labour would be worthwhile at that age - a real leveller and eye opener to the real world with real people.
I spent some very happy Saturdays and Christmas and summer holidays through sixth form and university working at M&S. I was mothered by the numerous older ladies, learned a lot about dealing with the public and had a lot of fun.Originally Posted by vagabond
My director’s daughter is now in her first year of an engineering degree but through her sixth form and since she’s worked her holidays in my office and has done some good work and fitted in well with the team.
As an employer if I was recruiting a recent graduate I’d definitely favour one who had worked through sixth form and university, both for the skills learned and more importantly as evidence of a work ethic.
Get him in to Waitrose - it’s worth it for the John Lewis staff discount, alone.
Depends on interests I suppose but my kids got jobs in John Lewis, Currys, next and a few other places and also did 1 day a week in a local charity shop during their summer breaks.
My daughter is taking her GCSE's this year. When i go into her bedroom it's like visiting a patient in intensive care. I don't think that the concept of "getting a job" would compute :-/
My 2 girls both worked for a local foreign student school- they still do in the summer (ones at uni and the other in education)
They both still really enjoyed it, made great friends and got paid to have fun- it’s some great experience and looks good on a CV too
I'm not sure just how much employment agencies have changed, but when I was 16 I signed up to half a dozen and had pretty steady work right through college - weekends and term breaks.
Almost all manual labour, I worked in a carpet factory lugging carpets about, a banana factory sorting and bagging 'nanas, a pizza factory loading pallets (that one stuck actually, I spent 8 years there after college) and all sorts of scrapyards and general factory stuff.
The work was grueling but the money was exceptional and it taught me an awful lot about the working world - nothing like getting your hands dirty.
I think these days the Eastern Europeans get most of those gigs but I do have a couple of friends who still rely on that sort of stuff. One is currently working on the bins - again it's hard work but he's clearing more money than me, so worth a look.
Other option would be a landscape gardener, they generally seem to be inundated with work in the summer and usually keen for an extra pair of hands to dig or push a wheelbarrow.
**Edit** Might be worth putting him in for a CSCS card. Costs about £100 if I recall but it'll open doors to the sorts of jobs you mention in your original post.
Last edited by kevkojak; 22nd February 2018 at 21:45.
Bit left field but working as a steward at festivals might be a bit of fun, I did that one summer at Leeds festival and was a great experience. Not sure if 16 would be old enough but worth a consideration.
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During the summer of A levels prior to Uni, my son got a job at a rather nice hotel/restaurant which on reflection gave him a few life skills he still uses.
Customer service, dealing with people (colleagues and customers), maths (dealing with money and transactions), he also learnt about Coffee's, types of wines, spirits (he still has a collection of (empty) exotic spirit bottles, food etc - I saw his confidence grow that summer.
I worked on a farm when I was 16 and spent a week doing wild-oating which I found pretty soul destroying TBH, but the rest of it I loved, it was hard work but it was a great crack with the other guys plus I got to drive the tractors etc. which was cool for a 15/16 year old.
We had a few weeks good weather which was all hands to the pump getting the crops/hay in, working from 8am to dark seven days a week. I was on 87 pence an hour NFU rates and netted over a hundred quid a couple of weeks running with overtime which was a fortune to me at the time, and paid for my Suzuki AP50 Moped.
The other bonus was I went back to school with muscles!
Great times I remember very fondly.
What’s all this rubbish?
Get him a job at the local Patek, Rolex, Omega or whatever main brand takes your fancy ;)
It's just a matter of time...
I worked in the warehouse of a factory that made tinsel and Christmas decorations before doing A levels. Most of the factory workers were women aged 16-60! Along with a hard as nails warehouse manager it was an educational experience to say the least.
Seeing the real world at work can be a good lesson in life.
Working as a lifeguard in the local leisure centres served me well all through college and uni. The pay wasn’t bad at all and school holidays was always so busy you could easily do 50/60 hours per week.
Those years give the happiest memories from a work point of view.
My daughter referees and tables basketball games. (Mostly kids games.)
She gets more money for her weekend than her mates do for a week in the shop. That she enjoys it too is a bonus...
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Tons of work here for young people. My 16 y/o is currently working at a supermarket stocking shelves twice a week. Before that, he has worked as a waiter. But he soon found out that the catering industry (is that the term) is not really his cup of tea... It's was a big step from 'intensive care patient' to working class hero... Too big.
When I was young and still at school, a classmate had to work for his money. He had 2 brothers and 1 sister. Pocket money stopped at the age of 13. From that moment on, they needed to find a job if they wanted have money in their pocket. Every penny earned was doubled by mom and dad. No work = no money!! All 4 kids worked very hard for their money. I must add that their parents were self-made multi-millionaires who had earned their money in transportation and (marine) logistics and they ran a very tight ship when it came to earning and spending!
Menno
It's an investment but a swimming teachers course is around £300.
They will get £12-15 per hour and it's a job they can usually pick up casual hours for during the holidays.
Both of my kids took the course at 16 and it served them well throughout their further education.
When I was 16 I got a job on the loading bay at my local Debenhams on Saturdays and summer holidays. Hard work, early mornings, but plenty of opportunities to try (and fail) to chat up the make-up birds, work with lots of different people and earn some extra cash when they were short.
One summer they sent me to work 6 days a week for a month at a new store on the south coast. Put me up in a hotel and paid me a few extra quid. I had a blast.
I honestly look back at those days and smile. I learnt a hell of a lot about work and play, and I think developed a decent work ethic as a result. Everyone should do something similar IMO
When I was 16 I got a job as a laundry sorter (incoming) at the local psychiatric hospital.
I would really, really, really, really not recommend it.
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My son is 16 and thinking about architecture / industrial design
We've organised a building labourers job and a week with an F1 team in the innovations/ design dept
Simon
At 16 I was working evenings and weekends in a Bingo Hall. It certainly made me study harder!
I hear the NHS may be looking for staff (humour, not politics!)
I worked in a corner shop, did paper rounds, marked up papers for the newspaper boys (girls weren't interested in working in all weathers), beating for the local toff's shoots.
Some good stories and fond memories there, and definitely ideas worth thinking about.
He has had a paper round since 13 and has no desire to stop as it gets him out of bed and is good exercise (his own words). Also referees U11 football at the weekends, which pays £15 a game.
I guess he is looking for a taste of a ‘real job’, the more character building the better in my opinion.
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My eldest son has been working at a rather nice pub on the North Norfolk coast for the last couple of years every Sunday with the odd extra shift during school holidays (he’s 17). It’s a bit of a gastro pub and he does a lot of different jobs. I must admit I was surprised they took him in at 16 but he now has a decent smattering of hospitality experience - with the added bonus that the landlord always pours me a free pint of Woodforde Wherry as I arrive to pick him up at the end of his shift. All very agreeable!
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I spent my teenage summers as a waiter in a Happy Eater on the A14. The most valuable lesson I learned was never to be an arse before your food arrived.
Local independent garden centre.
I spent a few summers working for marquee companies. Good graft, paid cash and worked with some good guys too. Certainly more enjoyable than working in the supermarket (which I also did).
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