When to start working?

10 June 2008

Many parents wonder how old their children should be before they begin looking for part time jobs. There can be a distinction between when they can legally become employed and when they should begin learning about a good work ethic.

While many parents begin teaching work habits by example, it is important to follow this up with personal lessons for the children. Talk with your friends to see if they are willing to pay your children small amounts to do chores around the house. This is a good early start to a working life that can help prepare children for proper jobs.

Whether your child should begin working for businesses as soon as possible is a matter of contention. At their youngest they offer employers an opportunity to have the most inexpensive workers, although they are inexperienced. As children get older, they must be paid more, so a lack of experience in addition to higher pay makes them a less attractive prospect.

Taking jobs as soon as possible allows for experience to be built up so that jobs are easier to get in the future, but they can interfere with study. The best thing to do is to encourage children to find jobs as soon as they can, but insist that they be picky about the conditions of any jobs they want to take. Part time jobs that require long and late hours are not beneficial, despite being plentiful. Help your children to find and choose only jobs that will go well with their studies and you can get the best of both worlds for your kids.

If you are looking for jobs in Australia, please visit our part time jobs, apprentice jobs, graduate jobs and administration jobs pages for listings of the best new jobs.


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