Don’t want to end up a clock watcher? Get a Saturday job

MY first Saturday job, at 15, was in a rather antiquated small general grocery store in the suburbs.

I was terrified that first morning, when I was shown the intricacies of the lethal-looking cheese wire and warned that there were quite a few customers who, when they asked for four ounces of Cheddar, wanted exactly that... not half an ounce over. Mistakes could be costly, and if there were many, I would pay.

Over the weeks duties extended from making tea, sweeping and mopping the floor, stacking shelves and making up orders for delivery to working behind the counter – quickly selling maybe 10 or 20 items of shopping and adding up the prices on paper (under the customer’s beady eye) before ringing the total upon a fairly primitive cash register.

The manager was a tough task master, but he was determined to teach his pupil well. Paid a week in arrears, I have never relished any pay packet as much as that first fiver, as it fell out of its small buff envelope.

The money was spent on records, clothes from Chelsea Girl and maybe the cinema. After a while, I decided to spend half and save half for future adventures. I later moved on from Fine Fare to a job in the tiny cafe at the local library – twice the money, no vicious cheese wire, and I was running my own small ship.

Responsible for money, security, hygiene (including loo cleaning) and not poisoning anyone with my cheese and ham toasties, I loved that very sociable job.

As I left school and went to university, other Saturday and holiday jobs – in bars, restaurants, admin, hotel cleaning and child minding – taught me something valuable and helped to mature a once awkward and slightly shy girl.

As a teenager almost everyone I knew had a Saturday job or babysat in the evenings. Work was easy to come by, often found by just walking in and having a chat with the manager of a shop, bar or cafe, after hearing that someone was leaving.

According to a report by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, the number of under-18s doing Saturday (or other part-time) jobs while at school has halved since the mid-1990s from four in 10 to two in 10 – so 435,000 teenagers working part-time is down to 260,000.

The UKCES forecasts that things will get much worse, because the few new jobs on offer are with small to medium-sized companies which look for experience – not something a 16 or 17-year-old can usually offer.

Employers look for good grades and teens are encouraged to stay at school and get them, but employers want to know what you can actually do.

Jobs like working in a supermarket, which might previously have been available to teenagers looking for part-time hours, are now fought over by students and even graduates.

Fewer than 25 per cent of employers have recruited a young person straight from education in the last three years but they say they’re more likely to take someone on, if they do, via informal networks.

While some families with working parents and good social contacts can use those networks to help find work for teenagers, families where the parents aren’t working are unable help, so the disadvantaged are disadvantaged even more, and longer-term prospects bleak.

Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and the UKCES said: “Everyone was young once and most people I meet are very concerned about the problems of youth unemployment. But concern needs to turn into action... and we’re calling on every employer to have a youth policy – a conscious decision to do something for young people in their community.

“Small actions can make a big difference, and things like work experience placements, giving talks to young people and offering work shadowing or mentoring are just some of the ways employers can help.”

Employment minister Chris Grayling agreed, adding: “Youth unemployment is a social and economic time bomb, costing the country billions each year.”

A Saturday job helped set so many of us up for life, teaching skills in dealing with all kinds of people and getting on even with colleagues you don’t particularly relate to.

It taught things that were not on the school curriculum, as well as making you realise that it was a good idea to study hard if you wanted to get a job where you were valued and happy, rather than a clock-watching drone.