Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The majority of students in Belgium enjoy working as much as feasible alongside their studies. However, to do so, some students are bypassing class to earn money instead.
Are Belgian students increasingly prioritizing work over studies?
Working alongside studying is increasingly prevalent in Belgium as student work has grown considerably and become more relaxed in recent years. No more irregular than 84% of Belgian scholars and students over the age of 15 studied by HR services provider Randstad have a job, most often functioning at the cash register (12%), as warehouse employees (11%) and at a desk (9%).
How common is it for Belgian students to work alongside classes?
The flexibility of student employment has resulted in just 10% of respondents only operating during summer holidays, and hardly 7% working exclusively during the school year. More than two-thirds of pupils now work as job students both during the summer vacations and during the school year, up from just half (51%) three years ago.
Are more students working during exam periods in Belgium?
However, the latest survey emphasises that more and more students and pupils are working during exam time, the most stressful time of the academic year. Some one in three (32%) job students occasionally work in between sitting exams, up from less than a quarter in 2018, this was surveyed for the first time. The older a student is, the more likely they are to work during this time.
Besides performing during the exam period, some students also sometimes work during class hours, with the majority of students missing classes to do so (67%). While the number of students in whom this occurred frequently did decrease, it still emphasises a worrying trend. Randstad disclosed another concerning trend: almost half of the job students conveyed that employers attempted to convince them to work during class hours.
How has student employment flexibility evolved in recent years?
Since the beginning of 2023, students can work up to 600 hours a year and accumulate money at reduced social assistance without their parents losing child benefits, up from the earlier ceiling of 475 hours. Slightly more than one in three (34%) of students who have accomplished student work in the past year state they have taken advantage of this law and thus worked more than 475 hours per year.
Six in 10 students would even want to work more than 600 hours a year, even though incorporating this much work with studies would likely additionally interfere with their studies. Already, one in three students interviewed felt that student work harmed their study routine. Still, ahead of the deliberate expiry of the rule at the end of this year, students are voicing their interest in an attachment. Almost eight in 10 students (77%) think the growth from 475 to 600 hours is necessary.
However, Randstad itself is not a big supporter of the 600-hour measure. “The question occurs whether this is alluring, as studies should obviously still be given priority,” stated Wim Van der Linden, spokesperson at Randstad.
Socialist trade union BBTK highlighted that working 600 hours roughly equals to about one-third of a full-time job. “That’s not nothing! First and foremost, a student should be capable to study.”
It claimed that, as the labour market has evolved increasingly flexible, full-time jobs with a decent income are harder to come by for some people.Â
“And as a result, the children of those people have to start performing to pay for their studies. It is a nasty circle that we have to break.” Randstad’s survey revealed that the proportion of students who partially finance their studies with their student jobs has increased from 25% last year to 28% this year. A quarter also states they contribute to the family budget. Around two in five students conveyed having to work more as a result.
