Page 66 - EducationWorld October 2020

International News

in other jobs.
Less clear is the role of secondary schools in infections.
They have stayed shut almost everywhere. Outbreaks in
France and Israel suggest that the virus could spread more
easily in secondary — than in primary — schools. Older stu-
dents may be easier to keep apart in classrooms, but good
luck trying to stop them congregating afterwards.
America will struggle to contain school outbreaks as
much of Europe has done, because infection rates in many
states are too high and health officials are overwhelmed.
Tough choices may be necessary. Britain’s prime minister,
Boris Johnson, has warned that pubs might have to close
(to keep infections down) so children can go to school. In
America, where any constraint on freedom goes against the
grain, such trade-offs may be an even tougher sell.
German undergraduates: third option. Inset: Frank Ziegele
GERMANY
Work students woes bers crunching. “We benefit from a rather cheap labour
force,” Prof. Ziegele admits. But still, “it’s much better for
STUDENTS LOOKING FOR PART-TIME WORK your career than working in a bar,” he argues.
are often caught between two less-than-ideal op- Not all employed German students enjoy work student
tions. When they need extra money, they can take positions. Like in other countries, they also toil in bars,
on low-skilled part-time work, such as stacking shelves in a cafes and factories in positions open to anyone. But the
supermarket or pulling pints in a bar. If they want profes- system is so well-established that almost a third of those
sional experience, internships are preferred. But these are employed have the equivalent of a work student position
often unpaid, excluding all but the wealthy, and sometimes in universities and research organisations (the number in
barely long enough to work out how to use the photocopier. private companies is unclear).
German students, however, have a third option that advo- Still, there are low rumbles of concern about social fair-
cates say combines the best of both worlds. ness. Students who win such positions in universities are
‘Work student’ positions have been offered by German more likely to come from highly educated families, accord-
companies since the 1920s and give undergraduates long- ing to a spokeswoman of the German Centre for Higher
term experience in a firm alongside their studies — stints Education Research and Science Studies. In some cases, the
of a year are not uncommon — while often paying above system is a “reproductive path for students from the higher
minimum wage. “This system in Germany seems to be very classes”, admits Schneickert, although he stresses it is still
special,” says Christian Schneickert, a sociologist at the Uni- fairer than unpaid internships.
versity of Magdeburg who has studied the scheme. But the pandemic has really brought the weaknesses of
An online search for work student positions yields thou- Germany’s student job system into painful focus. Perhaps
sands of results, offered by global consultancies, industrial surprisingly for a wealthy social democracy, in Germany
titans and banks. The work itself might not be the most students rely heavily on their jobs and parents, but less so
thrilling — doing income tax returns, writing sales reports, on the state (although they pay next to no tuition fees).
testing new IT tools — but it is several steps up from fetch- More than a quarter of students’ income comes from
ing coffee and may lead to a permanent job upon gradua- their own earnings, according to the most recent data from
tion, acting as a kind of extended interview. 2016, up four percentage points from 2012. Nearly seven
The system is protected in law. Work students who la- of 10 students work while studying. Meanwhile, more than
bour for less than 20 hours a week, pay no health or unem- half their income comes from parents.
ployment insurance, meaning they keep most of their sala- There is now deep worry about how many students
ries, explains Frank Ziegele, director of Germany’s Centre have lost their jobs, says Stefan Grob, spokesman for the
for Higher Education (CHE). “The incentive for everyone Deutsches Studentenwerk, a countrywide network of stu-
involved is that it creates a win-win situation,” he says. “You dent service organisations. One survey suggests that the
can earn a living, but can do something that is tied to what figure could be as high as 40 percent. The anguish from
you study.” Students commonly tackle questions pertinent student groups has grown so loud that in June, the gov-
to their employer in their bachelor’s or Masters thesis, he ernment introduced emergency grants for those down to a
explains. few hundred euros in their account. So far, there have been
At CHE, work students are drafted on a project basis to 150,000 applications for this bridging aid in June and July,
relieve regular employees of, say, relatively routine num- says Grob, whose organisation runs the scheme.

66 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2020