Saturday jobs for teens pave the way to the world of work

There was an automatic glass washer, and a dishwasher, both of which I had to load, but the cooking pots and utensils had to be tackled by hand. I once worked there on Boxing Day – I certainly earned my pay on that occasion. I later helped out as a chambermaid, making beds and cleaning bathrooms. My mum thought it amusing – she wasn’t impressed by my bed-making skills at home. To this day my husband scoffs at my attempts at hospital corners.

But, however bad at it I was, it was a job, and I was paid, in cash, in little brown envelopes.

Growing up in a village with three pubs and a hotel, there was never any shortage of employment for teenagers. Between the ages of 13 and 18 I worked part-time in two of those four establishments, as well as a pub in a neighbouring village, where, aged 17, with my friend Sharon, I cooked the Sunday ‘basket meals’ – unappetising affairs that we served in small wicker baskets with a badly folded napkin. The kitchen was chaotic. Had today’s inspection system been in place, it would have struggled to get one star. I went home smelling of grease.

Almost all my friends worked on either Saturday or Sunday in local pubs and shops. One of my friends manned the pumps at a local petrol station, another helped in a hairdressing salon.

In many ways, those jobs were the making of us. Aside from paper rounds, they were our first taste of the real world. As well as providing us with money to spend on shopping trips to Middlesbrough, they instilled in us a sense of responsibility and accountability, offering us the opportunity to manage situations ourselves.

Sadly, today such casual jobs as those my friends and I enjoyed – and we did enjoy them, we had great fun – now appear increasingly out of reach. According to figures from HMRC, the number of under-18s on payrolls has fallen by almost 75,000, or 15 per cent in the past two years.

Employers are struggling to meet the rising costs of running a business, especially in hospitality and retail, and cannot afford to employ additional part-timers. The growing use of technology, such as self-service checkouts, has also contributed.

It’s a great loss. Marks & Spencer chef executive Stuart Machin said a Saturday job can change a young person’s life, adding that it changed his. His first job was pushing trolleys at a local hypermarket. ‘That role turned me into a more confident young man’, he declared. The first rung on the employment ladder, it led to a successful career in retail.

Machin warns that increased red tape and regulation changes could further deter employers from taking on weekend staff.

As teenagers both my daughters had Saturday jobs with Marks & Spencer, one in the café and one on the women’s fashion floor. They loved it and learned a lot about the demands and rewards of the workplace. They also worked in a farm shop, which was hard work with early starts.

Saturday jobs are a good grounding for later life, from the importance of being on time, to how you present yourself, and your ability to work alongside adults. Nowadays, such work also reduces the time young people spend on screens.

Employers and industry groups like the British Retail Consortium are calling for policy changes and financial support to help businesses keep traditional Saturday jobs alive for young people.

I only hope more opportunities arise, to give them a helpful foot-in-the-door to the workplace, as well as a rewarding experience.