Work advice for 15 year olds

Jowo_2

I think the earlier poster has it spot-on when it comes to suggesting self-employment, such as babysitting, dog-walking, mow lawns, making things and selling them on Ebay or Etsy and so on which she might be able to keep going when she starts college.

If you have a good network of people working for companies, perhaps she can get permission from the office manager to come into their offices and sell hand-made cards, jhand-made jewellry, cookies or cakes. All of this will improve her business skills and confidence - she will have to get out there and market herself.

I expect any of the problems you experience with paid employment will be similarly experienced with voluntary roles.

Failing that, encourage her to spend the summer learning a new skill - language, web design, painting, music, sport - anything that takes her fancy where she will reap the benefits for dedicating a few months to it.

What is she planning to study?

Sazzyukrafc

Although I never worked until I left university...how about approaching cafes, restaurants etc about working in the kitchen as a pot washer or something like that? They'll be busy in the evenings and weekends.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I had a job at 13 working in a shop on a saturday and I did market stalls selling junk that people gave me and decorating! It taught me the value of money and how much energy goes into earning it.

Could she go to local jumble sales and but cheap stuff to sell on ebay?

Car washing, dogwalking, gardening, etc

good luck I hope she gets something.

KME91

When i was 15 i worked saturdays and holiday cover in a local family run bakery, i also washed pots and waited tables in a couple of pubs.

friends of mine worked in local hotels, bars, etc washing glasses and washing up. people at my school also worked at mcdonalds, woolworths, supermarkets, and the local safari park, cleaning out animals or operating rides/running concessions. one girl also worked at the local kennels, walking dogs and cleaning out. Infact our local economy basically depended on the youngsters from my school working!

Pretty much all of my school friends worked part time by the time i was doing my gcse's, but then most of our parents couldn't afford to give us much pocket money. it was really useful for me getting full time jobs after college, i had experience of customer service, handling money, food hygene, all sorts. and i had bags of confidence from having to deal with grumpy customers and all that.

sparky259

bristol_pilot wrote: »

A 15 year old is a child and shouldn't be working.

really are you willing to pay a 15 yr old a salery for nothing then cause there is nothing you can do without money in this town trust me, ive tryed

catenorfolk

bristol_pilot wrote: »

A 15 year old is a child and shouldn't be working.

Why not?????

bristol_pilot

Because this is the UK. This is Europe. This is not Calcutta or Zimbabwe. Yes, a 15 year old is capable of doing a paper round, just as a 5 year old is capable of begging all day in the filthy streets or a 9 year old is capable of carrying a rifle and fighting in the LRA. But it doesn't make it right.

I actually did have a job when I was 12 - collecting money door-to-door. I enjoyed it at the time, but in retrospect I wonder what my parents were playing at letting me go unsupervised door-to-door after dark on some really rough estates. I could have been mugged, molested or anything.

Sending a minor out to work puts them at risk of accident, abuse or worse. Whether they enjoy it or get something out of it doesn't excuse it at all. If you have a kid you are obliged to keep them until they're 18. The law in the UK quite rightly restricts what an under-16 can be employed to do and I for one would welcome a complete ban on under-16s working.

Claire_Bear

It depends where it is they're working, when I was 16 I worked at Homebase on the weekend, I have to say that I wouldn't have been abused there! We're talking about a job, not slave labour or sending them out to be in the army or anything :S I still got full support off my parents, a roof over my head, regular meals, and if I wanted money to treat myself to some shopping or to go to the cinema or something I would have probably gotten it, but I wanted to go out to work and earn something for myself and I have to say it was invaluable. I learned some new skills, learned the importance and value of money, experienced a working enviornment so I was prepared for what I would face later in life, gained confidence when speaking to people I didn't know, and it looks good on my CV now that I have a range of skills and experience instead of leaving uni and having a blank CV.

Just because your job when you were little was dangerous, doesn't mean it's the same now. And you could say the same for everything, if your child goes to the cinema or something on an evening, there is the possibility of something bad happening. I'd say teenagers are probably safer in the workplace than they would be in the town or out anywhere else. It's not as if the kid is being forced to work against their will

bristol_pilot

At 16 you were not a child, so I wouldn't have a problem with that.

Homebase is not a risk-free environment at all. There will be risk assessments in place and adults can be reasonably expected to understand and follow them, not so a child. A child is not capable of consenting to being placed at risk any more than they are capable of consenting to having sex. So they need protecting on both fronts.

Claire_Bear

15 is not a child, 15 is a teenager. To be honest there is not a massive amount of difference between being 15 and being 16, on your 16th birthday you don't magically become more responsible. To be honest it's quite offensive that you assume children can't understand and follow safety procedures, if I couldn't then I wouldn't have been allowed to work there. I was allowed to work heavy and potentially dangerous machinery, as were other emplyees my age in the store, and we had full training, which we understood and followed. And I was fully capable of understanding the risks. I think you need to give teenagers more credit, if there was really that much more risk of them having accidents, because they're too stupid to understand simple instructions, they wouldn't be allowed to work there. You seem to think that teenagers have the same mindset of 3 year olds, with no perception or understanding of the world around them