Combining Work and Study: an empirical study of full‐time students in school, college and university∗

Abstract Increasing proportions of students in full‐time education are routinely combining work with study which muddies the waters of the school‐to‐work transition. It is no longer appropriate to divide education and work and it is more useful to conceptualise the school‐to‐work transition as part of a life‐time learning process of transferable skills accrual. In a work experience undertaken for economic and social reasons students learn to reconcile the conflicting demands of work and study. Given the funding crisis in higher education and the likely exemption of young people from the National Minimum Wage, students can be expected to become even more entrenched as cheap and flexible labour.