It is important to get the balance right between part-time paid work and your studies, see our Tips on working safely during term time (.doc)

Part-time and casual work

You can use My Career Zone to search for temporary, part-time and vacation work, either to help you make ends meet whilst you're studying or to gain skills for your future career

Benefits of combining work & study

Apart from the obvious benefit of providing ready cash, having a part-time job can provide you with an important addition to your CV: experience!

It is not so much a matter of what you do but what you have learn from it, and your ability to demonstrate this to a future employer. There are two basic kinds of work experience: general and specific. General experience can be gained in any job and will help you develop skills such as: time-keeping; Learning how to deal with colleagues, working as part of a team, problem solving and commercial awareness. It helps enormously to be able to show your future graduate employer that you actually know what it's like having a job!

Specific work experience is experience in a field that you want a career in. Showing that you have already done work in a certain field or environment will help convince employers you are serious about that career path.

Useful resources

Financial difficulties

Students are encouraged to seek advice from their Personal Tutor or Student Counselling (01392 724831, counselling@exeter.ac.uk) if they are facing severe financial difficulties or encountering debt problems.

The Students’ Guild Advice Unit can also help you with financial planning and discussing further financial support.

More Than Work - Find out about employment law, knowing your rights and other employment support and information for students.

National minimum wage

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is a minimum amount per hour that most workers in the UK are entitled to be paid. Current rates are:

  • £6.08 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over 
  • £4.98 - the 18-20 rate
  • £3.68 - the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18

For further information go to direct.gov.uk

Further support