The Impact of Paid Employment on Academic Performance of Students

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Argument for working while still in school
Argument for not working while in studying
The impact of paid employment on academic performance
Conclusion
References

Introduction

In the modern day work environment, many students have opted to work as they study. The question on whether working while still in college is desirable has over the recent past raised more question than answers (Furr & Elling, 2000). There are different schools of thought which argue both for, and against working while in college.

Proponents of work-study set up think that it is desirable to work while studying since work complements the skills learnt in school (Lauren, 2005). The opponents argue that There is a correlation between the attention given to work and poor performance academically.

They further argue that the school time devoted to work offers the student less time to articulate the learning concepts and therefore negatively affect the academic performance (Pritchard, 1996). This paper discusses the impact of paid employment on academic performance of students and overall experience at the university.

Argument for working while still in school

Many studies have been done seeking to answer the simple question of whether to work while in school or complete studies first then engage in full-time employment. As such, many proponent of working while in school have come up with numerous justifications for their support for work-study setting. Several reason are given as to why work-study life is desirable.

First, it is commonly argued that working while studying enhances a student’s study life since the concepts learnt in school are applied almost at the time of learning.

This offers an invaluable experience to the student who get to practically experience the theoretical literature learnt in class while it is still fresh in the mind (Li-Chen & Wooster, 1979). A student whose work is in his primary area of study will usually find it easier to articulate the concepts taught in class since the experience he gets from the work complements the literature taught in class.

Some other students also work in order to afford their tuition fee. This may not necessarily positively affect their academic performance but it plays an integral part in ensuring that the students attend college through providing income in order to pay for the college fees. The proponents therefore, posit that for this particular group of individuals, it is desirable to work while schooling.

Argument for not working while in studying

Several opponents of work-study programs have come forward to present their case against working while in school. Most individuals against this setting argue that individuals can only devote their productive time to one major activity at a time (Ruhm, 1997).

This means that an individual who works while studying will have two major areas that require personal commitment and can only attend to one at a time. Therefore, the student will either pay more attention to work and consequently, fail academically, or that particular student will pay more attention to the studies and therefore, result in low productivity at work.

The impact of paid employment on academic performance

From the preceding discussion, it has been noted that there are several arguments both for, and against working while in school. But the biggest question is whether paid employment has effects on academic performance.

It has been found out that employment during school could actually positively influence the academic performance of the students (Pritchard, 1996). However, this is only so in cases where the type of work that a student is doing offers attributes which are complementary with the school’s success academically.

These attributes that might improve a student’s academic performance include time management and industriousness. Students who work in environments where such attributes are instilled will inadvertently exhibit high levels of personal discipline and this may actually help improve their academic performance (Astin, 1993). This is because a student is able to manage and plan for the available time well in such a manner that there is optimization of the time that consequently ensure high productivity both at work and academically.

On the other hand, it is argued that work negatively affects a student academic performance and results in lower grades. This is presented by several researches that have been carried to establish the marginal effect of an additional one hour at work to the students’ academic grades. According to a study done on Townson State University, it was found that an additional ten hours of school for student who were in active employment reduced their academic performance measured by the exams grades by two percent (Dustmann & Christian, 2007).

This is explained by the fact that a student who is working while studying will tend to pay more attention to work since that particular student’s primary reason for being in school is to find a gainful employment.

This means that the student who has already secured an employment opportunity will therefore, devote more quality time on the job that on the school work (Laming, 2004). It has also been found out that work hours are treated as exogenous.

Other researches done also indicate an increasing relation to scale on the incremental number of hours at work matched with the academic performance of students. As a student spends more time at the workplace, more time is dedicated to the job and therefore losing on the quality time that could otherwise be devoted to the school hours and thus reducing on the academic performance.

Paid employment has however, some other effects on the overall student’s experience at the university. Most students who are engaged in paid employment usually have desirable effects on their overall experience at the university. Employment while at work usually instills a sense of responsibility on the students (Lauren, 2005). This is so because most students who are working while studying are usually at their entry level in their work places.

Employees at the entry level usually exhibit higher expectation in terms of career growth since at their level, they are able to establish the stages they need to go through in order to reach their desired targets in their career paths. Employment while in the university therefore, offers a beneficial exposure to the students who are able to objectively evaluate the options at their disposal (Pritchard, 1996).

Students have make decisions on leisure or work, or leisure or school, or even reduce leisure time to concentrate on school and work. This instills an early sense of responsibility to the students since they are able to objectively look at different situations and make responsible judgments.

Conclusion

From the preceding discussion, it has been seen that paid employment has both negative and positive effects on students’ academic performance.

Student who engage in employment where some desirable attributes such as time management and industriousness are enforced at the work place may have better grades in school than those who do not work or those who work under different environments. However, more time spent at work over school may begin to negatively affect the performance of students academically.

It is therefore, important to note that a student needs to find and strike a balance between work and school. This is so because there is a high correlation between students’ grades at school and future career growth. The fact that a student is working does not provide a reason enough for that student not to perform well in school.

References

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dustmann, & Christian. (2007). Part-time Work, School Success and School Leaving. Empirical Economics, 277-299.

Furr, R., & Elling, T. (2000). The influence of work on college student development. NASPA Journal, 454-470.

Laming, D. R. (2004). Understanding human motivation what makes people tick? Malden: Blackwell Publishers.

Lauren, E. W. (2005). The Effects of College Student Employment on Academic Achievement. The University of Florida Undergraduate Research Journal, 38-47.

Li-Chen, M., & Wooster, R. (1979). The effects of unemployment on the college students’ academic peformance. College Student Journal, 12-20.

Pritchard, M. (1996). “Hours of employment and undergraduate studies. Consumer Interests Annual, 207-209.

Ruhm, C. (1997). “Is High School Employment Consumption or Investment?”. Journal of Labor Economics, 735-776.

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