Many students work part-time during their studies either to earn extra money or to gain more practical experience. I also have, in fact, two part-time jobs at the moment, barista at Starbucks and student ambassador at BU, and in this blog I will share with you guys some information about what kinds of job are available in Bournemouth as well as where to apply. When you’re a BU student, you’ll have access to MyCareerHub, which is a really good place to start your search.
Food and drink
In Bournemouth, there are a few fast-food outlets such as KFC, McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut as well as cafes like Starbucks, Costa and Nero. In those places you can work part-time as a cashier, food maker (in food outlets), barista (in coffee shops) or cleaner. Sometimes where there is no restaurant and the outlet is just a delivery point, delivery people are also wanted (only apply if you have a car). To apply for those jobs you often need to go to their official websites and see if they have any vacancies, then register your details and go through certain steps of an application process, or you can drop your CV at the store but have to wait until they need to hire more staff, which can take a while.
There are other small restaurants in the Bournemouth town centre area where you can apply to be a waiter/ waitress. Simply look for the sign “Wanted” on their windows or again, just leave your CV.
Retail outlets
By retail outlets I mean supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, Lidl or clothes shops like H&M, Zara, or Primark. Similar to food and drink jobs, for these jobs you have to apply online on their websites. They are normally looking for cashiers, inventory checkers or cleaning staff. In these places as well as food and drink outlets, you are usually paid minimum wage.
BU Student Ambassador
Once a year, BU will recruit student ambassadors in September to work for the next academic year. As an ambassador you will assist the staff on university Open Days, career fairs, events and possibly some ad-hoc work in the Marketing department. There are other specialist roles that you can apply to beside the standard ambassador, which are blogger/vlogger, mentor, subject specialist or outreach ambassador. This is also a flexible and well-paid job, you’ll get to know lots of people from different countries and be involved with a variety of activities. The best part is that you’ll get a pink t-shirt/ hoodie for free!
Care assistant
If you search for part-time jobs in Bournemouth, you’ll probably see a lot of health care assistant vacancies popping up on the first results page. Indeed, care assistant is a popular job for students because it is well-paid and flexible. Some recruitment agencies require previous experience, but there are other agencies who can train you from the start. Basically, you will be sent to different care homes to look after the elderly or people with disabilities. The agency will send you shift requests and based on your schedule you can accept or deny the work. However, this job usually costs some initial investment. You may have to pay for training fees, DBS fees and your working uniform.
Others
For other jobs like cashier in shopping malls or hotel receptionist, employers sometimes require that you have studied or are studying a relevant subject, often in hospitality or business. Not many of my friends are working in such positions, because they demand a very high standard of English to communicate with customers in a professional environment as well as necessary skills in sales and that can be quite a challenge for international students.
Nonetheless, I’d say get a part-time job, it will benefit you in one way or another, but make sure that you can balance working and studying, and of course, having time for yourself as well. If you are an international student, remember to check your visa restrictions – for example I can only work 20 hours per week in term time, but personally I wouldn’t work more than that. There are so many destinations in the UK that I haven’t explored yet, so I need the extra time!
By Anh Ngu
