Secondary employment of modern students (on the example of AltSU students)

Popov Evgenii Aleksandrovich Doctor of Philosophy Professor, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University; Professor of the Department of History and Philosophy of the Barnaul Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 popovea@mc.asu.ru Other publications by this author     Antonovich Irina Vladimirovna PhD in Sociology Associate Professor, Department of Social and Youth Policy, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Altai Krai, Dimitrova str., 66, office 505 irina.antonovich2504@yandex.ru Akhmedova Angelina Rustamovna Assistant, Department of General Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 axmedovaangelina@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Koda Egor Aleksandrovich Student, Department of General Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656949, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Dimitrova str., 66, office 520 kodaegor@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Kozlova Viktoriya Aleksandrovna Student, Department of Sociology and Conflictology, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Chervonnaya str., 5, sq. B91M1 viktoriya071103@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Currently, a student who simultaneously receives a higher education and works somewhere is becoming quite commonplace, moreover, the tendency to combine study and work is characteristic of the whole world as a whole. Secondary employment allows students not only to improve their financial situation, become financially independent from their parents, but also to acquire a number of communicative and professional competencies that can be successfully applied in the future. Moreover, the practice of secondary employment allows you to form a certain work experience, which can be an advantage in employment after graduation. The phenomenon of secondary employment of a student is difficult to assess unambiguously, on the one hand, there is an accelerated professional socialization of an individual, his rapid inclusion in a new social reality, into which a young person will have to move fully after graduation. The student becomes more responsible, manages his time more competently. On the other hand, secondary employment is realized precisely in free time from study, negatively affecting the amount of time allocated for preparing for classes, sessions, etc. ^[16]. Moreover, not every employer is ready to provide a flexible schedule in order for a student to have time to work and study, as a result, a person has to sacrifice the learning process by staying in the workplace during school hours.

The key problem of secondary employment of a student is that often the specialty of study is in no way connected with the place of work. This fact increases the likelihood that an individual after graduating from university will go to work not in his specialty, which makes it more difficult for the demands of the labor market and the education system produced by specialists to lead to a certain common denominator. Also, not all students are able to correctly prioritize work and academic activities, as a result of which there are distortions that negatively affect educational activities – the main activity of the student ^[2].

The practice of secondary employment has a fairly long history, respectively, more than one generation of students has passed through such practice. Nevertheless, there is simply no unambiguous answer about how the secondary employment of a student affects educational activities, moreover, examples of extremely successful combination of academic and work activities are increasingly appearing, when a student fully masters all educational competencies, has high academic performance, and also manages to earn an independent life. Therefore, the question remains open about the influence of secondary employment practices on the educational process, professional socialization of an individual, which is why this work is relevant.

The theoretical development of this problem is at a fairly high level. Secondary employment of students has been studied in detail both within the framework of domestic and foreign socio-humanitarian knowledge. First of all, it is worth noting the works of foreign classics, namely G. Simmel, M. Weber and K. Jaspers, as a kind of theoretical basis for all approaches to the study of secondary student employment. According to the classics of sociological science, the need for labor activity in the implementation of educational activities is due, on the one hand, to the need to gain economic independence with the help of third-party income, and on the other hand, to the realization of creative potential applicable to both labor and educational activities. A.M. Nagimova and F.R. Safiullina identified the main methodological approaches in the study secondary employment of students, characterized the influence of social reality on an individual's decision to combine work and educational activities ^[11]. The issue of the influence of secondary employment of students on the labor market as a whole, as well as the system of motives for combining academic and work activities, was dealt with by Zh.V. Puzanova ^[13].

M.S. Korotkova developed a social portrait of a working student, and also identified the main indicators that an individual needs to achieve for a successful combination of work and educational activities ^[8]. Yu.A. Smirnova characterized the secondary employment of a student as a basic element of professional socialization of a modern specialist ^[14]. The practice of combining allows a person to increase social flexibility and improve adaptability to changing socio-economic conditions. Despite the rather detailed theoretical elaboration of the problem, the question remains open about the criteria for successful and unsuccessful practices of combining work and educational activities. It is also not entirely clear which criteria are considered universal when evaluating the educational component of a student's activity, that is, to consider only academic performance or the acquired competencies are also included in the evaluation of the educational component. Moreover, there are no comprehensive local studies of secondary employment practices of students of provincial classical universities, since it becomes possible to conduct a comparative analysis of secondary employment of students of humanities, natural science and technical fields of study, which will be the novelty of this sociological study. The purpose of this work is to study the practices of combining study and work by students on the example of students of the Altai State University.

The theoretical and methodological basis of this work is based on a combination of structural functionalism and phenomenology. The structural and functional approach makes it possible to determine the main components of secondary employment, to identify the types and forms of secondary employment of students, while the phenomenological approach will reflect exactly the everyday options for combining academic and work activities.

The practice of secondary employment of students has been applicable since the 19th century, when students did not have scholarship support, but there was a need to earn money. Young people had to work part-time in a job that was practically unrelated to any specialty in an educational institution, for example, as a copyist or tutor ^[11]. There was a similar practice in Soviet times, although scholarship provision had already been established, nevertheless, students worked part-time in positions that did not require any qualifications, for example, as a watchman or a stoker, but the practice of secondary employment turned out to be more organized, student detachments appeared, collective harvesting, etc. At the same time, secondary employment students can be both completely identical with the specialty they receive when medical university students go to work in hospitals, and completely different from the specialty they receive when future sociologists or philologists go to distribute leaflets ^[12]. But in any case, regardless of the choice of the direction of activity, secondary employment directly affects the professional socialization of the individual.

Secondary employment is the labor activity of representatives of student youth, paid in a certain way, implemented in their free time from the educational process. Secondary employment allows an individual to show social flexibility, radically changing the activity from educational to labor, applying different social roles. Moreover, secondary employment meets new trends in the labor market, in particular, such a trend as the formation of a transprofessional ^[6]. We are talking about the fact that a person with a number of basic competencies of both professional and general cultural nature can realize himself in almost any field, a vulgar example would be the fact that a sociologist can earn extra money as a food deliverer, a philologist as a proofreader in a magazine and so on.

To a large extent, secondary employment is predetermined by a combination of external factors of socio-economic and political order. Sometimes a student needs to revise his own life guidelines, since the planned path may simply be irrelevant in 3-5 years ^[5]. This state of affairs lengthens the process of starting life, but on the other hand, young people are trying to "get back on their feet" as quickly as possible, limiting themselves to certain time frames. One of the functional elements of such a system is secondary employment. Secondary employment is caused by two parameters. One parameter implies meeting the ever-growing material needs of students. This parameter increases with increasing requests, including for the quality of life in general. Of course, the student has to spend serious mental and physical strength to achieve a certain level. Another parameter implies purposeful activity, which directly depends on rational motives, for example, to gain work experience for easier entry into the labor market, etc. ^[18]. From a sociological point of view, secondary socialization as a whole has a positive effect on the block of general cultural, communicative competencies of an individual, as well as on a number of basic-level professional competencies. In addition, the practice of secondary employment enriches the social and cultural capital of the individual ^[15].

If we consider secondary employment from the position of roles and social statuses, then it is obvious that two social roles are combined, namely, a student whose activity is focused on studying and an employee – an activity aimed at completing tasks in order to receive monetary remuneration later. Despite the qualitatively different meaning of activity within each social role, it turns out that their real combination is possible, only at different points in time ^[4]. In fact, secondary employment performs the following functions. Firstly, it is an improvement in the financial situation of the student, that is, secondary employment serves as a source of income. Secondly, it is getting work experience, that is, secondary employment is a way of getting work experience even at the stage of studying at the university. Thirdly, secondary employment is not limited to the academic framework of educational programs and in fact an individual can try himself in any field of activity interesting for himself ^[17]. That is, secondary employment helps an individual to find his work niche, to self-determine and in the future to know exactly what to do after graduation. It is also worth noting the actualizing function of the essence, which is that an individual passes from a state of opportunity (to work, to receive additional funds) to a state of reality when a person begins to work and receive material remuneration. The integrative function of secondary employment manifests itself in simplifying the professional integration of an individual into almost any collective, into any social system. According to the authors of this work, the information function of secondary employment is also important. Often young people have inflated ambitions and idealistic ideas about the labor market ^[10]. In fact, the situation is such that it is possible to enter the labor market to be out of business at all. Therefore, the practice of secondary employment allows an individual to get information about the real situation on the labor market, and to some extent objectify their ideas about what is happening.

Secondary employment lends itself quite successfully to structural analysis, for example, it is possible to distinguish secondary employment by the nature of activity, that is, production activity, commercial activity or financial activity. Secondary employment can be viewed through the prism of legitimacy or illegitimacy, similarly, specific practices of secondary employment can be considered. It is possible to note the classification according to the degree of regularity of employment, for example, casual employment, periodic employment, permanent employment and seasonal employment, although the line between particular examples of secondary employment according to this classification is rather shaky ^[3].

The question of motivation in the structure of secondary employment turns out to be extremely important. The thing is that motivation turns out to be extremely heterogeneous for a student who has decided to combine work and academic activities. Personal motivation implies considering secondary employment as a way of self-realization, for example, using one's abilities to obtain additional income. Social motivation implies the need to include an individual in the professional community, it is this motivation that contributes more to the full-fledged professional socialization of the individual. The third type of motivation is career motivation, when an individual wants to quickly achieve career growth in the workplace, improve their financial situation ^[7].

The motivational component of secondary employment of students is also subject to changes. Motives of a material nature are gradually being replaced by motives of a professional nature, which is due to the permanent influence of an educational institution on the professional socialization of an individual. The gradual ascent of the career ladder is not in trend for modern students, during the training the student plans to gain experience and upon graduation to take a certain leadership position. However, it is worth noting that such a strategy is hardly applicable in real practice, since the work experience gained during the implementation of secondary employment practices will hardly be enough for employment in a managerial position.

Of course, secondary employment has a number of advantages for the life of the individual as a whole ^[1]. We are talking about shortening the period of professional start, when a person with minimal work experience can apply for more attractive vacancies, about structuring the life path, since objective ideas about the labor market form certain guidelines for an individual. It is also worth noting the formation of self-determination skills in the professional community, the acquisition of socio–professional status, and most importantly - increasing competitiveness in the labor market ^[9].

The methodology of the study of secondary employment of students is based on a combination of two methods, namely, a questionnaire in the form of a mass survey as a quantitative method and a focus group as a qualitative method of collecting empirical data. The use of a combination of two research methods makes it possible to collect the necessary array of sociological data in the shortest possible time to formulate meaningful conclusions and recommendations. The survey makes it possible to identify the main structural components of secondary employment, to determine a certain relationship between educational activities and the student's work activity. The survey was conducted both in online format and in-person format, since each of the formats has a number of advantages and disadvantages.

Taking into account the fact that secondary employment of students is an extremely ambiguous, and in some ways even contradictory phenomenon, the discussion in a given direction as a result of focus groups will allow students to fix different opinions on factors affecting the combination of work and study, to isolate the main positive and negative aspects of the impact of secondary employment on the academic the process. According to the authors, the two focus groups conducted on the stated topic can be considered a sufficient basis for the formation of certain conclusions.

The sample set of this sociological study is based on the principle of cluster sampling using elements of spontaneous selection. Each institute of Altai State University is a cluster, there are 9 institutes in total, therefore, there are also 9 clusters. Within each institute, 40 full-time students were selected for the questionnaire based on the principle of accessibility of respondents. A total of 360 students of Altai State University were interviewed as part of the questionnaire. Conducting a study at a classical university allows us to consider the secondary employment of students in both humanities and natural sciences, as well as technical areas of study, which is a heuristically valuable point. As for the focus groups, one representative from each institute was selected for each focus group. In total, 18 students took part in two focus groups.

After conducting a sociological study of secondary employment of modern students of Altai State University, the following results were obtained. The study of secondary employment of a student consists of two components, the educational process itself: academic performance, the formation of professional, general cultural competencies, etc., as well as work itself: the scope of student employment, the amount of time that has to be spent on work every day, the form of employment, etc.

The student youth of Altai State University, despite the presence of secondary employment, real activist life, quite successfully assimilates knowledge, a list of professional and general cultural competencies. For the most part, working students do not have academic debt, in addition, a third of the surveyed students are excellent students, despite the real workload and lack of free time. The fact that the educational programs of the Altai State University are interesting enough for assimilation also plays a role, so students find a certain balance between the work process, free time and study in order to really get a list of professional and general cultural competencies. Since a person is interested in the educational program being mastered, we can say that even with a serious load from secondary employment, academic performance will not decrease, and if it does, it will decrease slightly (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "Is it difficult for you to study in your specialty"

The attitude to the educational process is also influenced by the demand for the specialty in the labor market: the more in demand the specialty, the more attention the student will pay to the educational process and vice versa, the less in demand the specialty, the less attention is paid to the educational process, and more attention is paid to secondary employment, activist life in the university, etc. If the demand for the received specialty correlates with a high salary, then it is practically guaranteed that the student will look for a place of secondary employment in a field that is directly or indirectly related to the received specialty. The same idea is confirmed by a two-dimensional analysis of the relationship of the place of work with the specialty being obtained and with plans to work in the future in the specialty being obtained, for example, those respondents whose place of work and specialty are definitely connected in 75% of cases, one way or another, plan to work in the specialty, and vice versa, if the place of current work is not connected with the received specialty, the respondents do not consider work in the specialty as a way of professional self-realization (see Fig. 2).

         Fig. 2. The relationship between the distribution of respondents' answers to the question: "Do you think your specialty is in demand in the labor market?" and the question "Do you have confidence that after graduation you will easily find a job in your specialty?" (as a percentage of the number of respondents).

The fact of secondary employment is also affected by the complexity of the training program in a particular specialty, as well as the fact that there is a certain amount of free time. Given the fairly flexible learning process at Altai State University, students of almost all specialties have the opportunity to engage in work activities in addition to academic activities. Also, the real need for secondary employment manifested itself when analyzing the respondents' answers to the question "What difficult things can you highlight when studying in your field of study?" – almost half of the respondents noted that they do not have time to combine study and work – 46%, therefore, the real need for secondary employment is obvious. However, the amount of free time from study that it turns out to be possible to devote to work from representatives of different institutes is different, so, for example, 65% of IGN students do everything in time and they have enough time for everything, while students of technical institutes and natural science institutes have a shortage of time, due to the specifics of the educational process, as a result of which it is more difficult for them to combine study and secondary employment. But, in addition to secondary employment, many students take an active part in the life of the university, including social events, science, sports, student groups, and so on. Consequently, there is enough time for modern students to combine secondary employment and educational activities (see Table 1).

Table 1. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "What difficult things can you highlight when studying in your field of study?"

If earlier the phenomenon of a working student caused considerable surprise, today in the minds of students the practice of combining academic and work activities is the absolute norm (66% of respondents, and a third of respondents noted that this state of affairs is the norm if there are no problems with studying. The change in the pace of life, the social demands of students and a number of other parameters have somewhat transformed the idea of a student, now it is not only a person who comprehends a certain science, but also an employee of a company, an adult seeking to provide for himself.

In fact, there are quite a lot of reasons for combining academic and work activities by a modern student. The key reason is the financial difficulties that every representative of the student youth unwittingly faces, more than half of the respondents want to help parents and support the family, as an act of demonstrating sustainable emancipation from the guardianship and financial support of parents, also secondary employment allows the student to decide what he wants to do, in addition, secondary employment provides real opportunities to get work experience, which is necessary in the modern labor market. Students who have or have had the practice of combining academic and work activities are better aware of the demands on the labor market, they understand that a key component of further successful employment is work experience in a particular field. As for the students' requests regarding the place of work, the key factor in choosing a place of secondary employment was the amount of wages, prospects for further employment, as well as possible career growth (listed in order of importance). As for the most direct practice of employment of representatives of student youth, the main resource for employment are ads on the Internet. In the conditions of the modern labor market, social ties cease to be significant in the practice of employment, much depends on the luck of the student himself, since 17% simply successfully turned up a vacancy.

Secondary employment of students is represented by a whole list of areas of activity, ranging from the field of public catering, ending with public service, administrative personnel, education and other areas of activity. Consequently, it is not so much education that becomes important in the modern labor market, as the availability of flexible professional competencies, which students who combine academic and work activities successfully possess. Secondary employment of modern students in the minority is realized within the framework of state organizations, but at the same time, such students are officially employed, have all social guarantees. Most of them, of course, work for the benefit of private campaigns, often they are not officially arranged, receive unofficial wages, do not have any significant social guarantees. Almost every ninth student surveyed is self-employed, this is one of the most flexible forms of secondary employment, since there are no problems when combining academic and work activities. If a student is arranged under an employment contract, then the official workload, in most cases, is part-time. Of course, the place of secondary employment of a student often does not correspond to his ambitions and the level of claims, as a result, the majority of respondents (60%) do not like their place of work based on the workload, salary, attitude from the authorities, etc. The best practices of combining academic and work activities are implemented by those students who are released without problems by the employer to study accordingly, problems of combining arise when the employer does not meet the student halfway, he is not allowed to pair up, there are absences, as a result, academic debt (see Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Distribution of respondents' answers to the question "Specify the branch of your professional activity".

The daily time spent on the student's labor activity significantly affects the success in academic activities. So those respondents who work at work for less than 6 hours every day quite successfully combine academic and work activities, most successfully it turns out for those respondents who work from one to four hours daily. In the event that a student works more than 6 hours a day, some problems with academic performance begin to manifest themselves, and academic arrears appear in a number of disciplines (see Table 2).

Table 2. The relationship between the distribution of respondents' responses to the question: "How much time per day does secondary employment (your job) take away from you?" and "Indicate your academic performance?" (as a percentage of the number of respondents)

Despite the fact that salaries within the framework of secondary employment of students are small, and the majority of respondents are dissatisfied with them, nevertheless, wages occupy a confident first place in the income structure of a working student, which allows the student to realize their specific needs, close gestalts, etc. Often, secondary employment is considered as a temporary measure to earn a certain amount of money, nevertheless, those students who are currently engaged in highly qualified intellectual work in 60% of cases plan to continue working at their current place of work in the future, by the way, there are an absolute minority of such students.

Based on the conducted empirical research, recommendations were formed that are designed to improve the quality of the practice of combining educational activities with secondary employment of students of Altai State University, by adjusting the influence of certain factors.

1.      Based on the fact that many students face situations when their employer does not let them go to study from work, it is necessary for the university to establish relationships with partner employers in such a way that the secondary employment of a student is not only official and with appropriate social guarantees, but also without prejudice to the educational process. Thanks to such cooperation, the number of working students who have academic debts in certain subjects will decrease.

2. If the secondary employment of a student is directly related to the specialty received, then the educational institution should meet such a student halfway, if possible, transferring the student to an individual training plan. Secondary employment itself can be counted against the production practice, since the assimilation of competencies at work is even more than in production practice.

3.      If there is a financial opportunity, it is necessary to permanently improve the financial situation of students by indexing scholarships, financial assistance and other payments. Improving the financial situation of student youth representatives will reduce the number of secondary employment practices of students, as a result, academic performance and the quality of mastering educational programs will improve.

4.      It is necessary to carry out activities that increase the level of legal and financial literacy of students so that they know their rights when applying for a certain place of work. Defending their rights, as part of the implementation of secondary employment practices, representatives of student youth will be more socially, economically and legally protected.