Finding employment

Part time employment

Minumum age

The minimum age for employment is 13 years of age.

Work Children can do

These are some examples of the types of work children of school age can be employed to do:

• Work in shops including on tills

• Shelf stacking

• Delivering newspapers, journals and leaflets

• Office work

• Serving at a table in a café or restaurant

• Car washing by hand

• Light agricultural/horticultural work

• Working in a riding stable

• Shampooing/sweeping up in a hairdressers

• Working in hotels

• Jobs in entertainment

Work children cannot do

These are some examples of work children of school age cannot be employed to do:

• Work in any commercial kitchen such as a café, pub, hotel, restaurant or fish and chip shop

• Serve alcoholic drinks in pubs, clubs or restaurants

• Work in cinemas, discos, nightclubs or theatres

• Work in a factory or industrial undertaking

• Work in a fairground, amusement park or where gambling takes place

• Work in milk delivery or butchers shops

• Telephone sales

• Serve petrol/fuel/oil, or handle any dangerous biological or chemical substances

• Collect money, selling or canvassing door to door or in street trading

• Lift heavy objects

Hours and breaks

No child may start work before 7.00 am or finish later than 7.00 pm. When aged between 13 years and their school leaving date a child may work:

• On school days:

• One hour before school and up to two hours after school. They must not work more than a total of two hours on any school day.

• All Sunday employment is restricted to a maximum of two hours

• Saturdays and school holidays:

• Children aged 13 or 14 years old can work for a total of five hours daily to a maximum of 25 hours weekly

• Children aged 15 years and over can work for a total of eight hours daily to a maximum of 35 hours weekly

A child who works for four hours in any one session must have a break of one hour.

Or why not register with a recruitment agency for temporary or permanent work

Medsolve UK Limited

Covering all of the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside we specialise in Healthcare Recruitment

CKAssociates Limited

CK Associates Limited trades as CK Science, CK Clinical, CK IT and CK Engineers. Theye are specialist recruiters in the UK and Europe with 20+ years experience supplying professional, permanent and contract staff to a wide range of client companies in industries including pharma, biotech, chemicals and healthcare

Octane recruitment

CARS are a specialist automotive recruitment agency covering the UK mainland.

Tribe Recruitment Ltd

Tribe Recruitment is a recruitment agency that sources talented individuals across a number of disciplines for both temporary and permanent positions

Advice for school leavers (targetjobs.co.uk) 

The 100 most popular employers for school leavers and the top 50 universities. 

icould - Career ideas and information for your future 

This website is an excellent resource that will allow you to watch video clips of people who have experience of working in a wide range of job sectors from property management, science, marketing, PR and many more. 

Widgets – LMI For All 

Want to know the wages and areas of growth and decline? 

Support for secondary pupils and school leavers | My World of Work 

Careerometer can be used to explore and compare key information about occupations, help you learn about different occupations and identify potential careers. It provides access to a selection of UK headline data relating to pay, weekly hours of work and future employment prospects for different occupations, as well as description of the occupation. Simply type in the title of the job you are interested in and the widget provides a series of options from which you can select the most relevant to you. You can then look up another two occupations and compare. You can also select ‘display the UK average’ and compare the information with the occupation you have selected.