{"id":49473,"date":"2017-12-01T12:23:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T12:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tesyouth.org\/t\/?p=49473"},"modified":"2017-12-02T12:31:56","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T12:31:56","slug":"zero-hours-job-and-young-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tesyouth.org\/t\/zero-hours-job-and-young-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero-hours job and young women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A report finds having a degree offers young women little help in the jobs market if they are also mothers needing flexible working hours, one young mum explains her frustration.<\/p>\n

“Money is so tight. You never really know how much you are going to get paid each month,” says Issy Mason a 26-year-old graduate, from Nottingham, who also happens to be a single mother.<\/p>\n

She has an upper-second class degree in languages and international business from Sheffield Hallam University, speaks fluent Spanish and has completed two internships in marketing, one of them overseas.<\/p>\n

She achieved all this alongside having become a mother at 19 – but her skills and qualifications seem to count for little in her hunt for a graduate job – because she needs a flexible work pattern.<\/p>\n

She says the only jobs open to her flexible enough to fit around school pick-up for her six-year-old daughter offer zero-hours contracts.<\/p>\n

Minimum wage<\/strong>
\nThroughout her degree, Issy always worked part time. She thought this, alongside her unpaid internships, would make her more employable as a graduate.<\/p>\n

But the reality has proved “dispiriting” and she feels shut out of the graduate jobs market. “I have applied for graduate schemes, but there’s not a lot of flexibility,” she says.<\/p>\n

“You can’t negotiate start times and finish times for school pick-ups. “There is scope in senior roles for part-time and flexible working, but there’s less flexibility in entry-level jobs.<\/p>\n

“I feel a lot of opportunities are out of my reach. It has been incredibly frustrating and depressing. “At times, I really took it personally. It really hit my confidence.”<\/p>\n

But she still hopes “for a job that pays a salary rather than minimum wage”. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n