Today in the UK teenagers are allowed to work from the age of 13, and many do take up part-time jobs. It's a taste of independence and sometimes a useful thing to put on their CV(简历). Teenagers agree that it teaches valuable lessons about working with adults and also about managing their money.
Some research has shown that not taking part-time job could be detrimental to a person later on. A 2015 study by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills found that not taking part-time work at school age had been blamed by employers' organizations for young adults being ill-prepared for full-time employment. However, recent studies have still shown that the number of schoolchildren in the UK with a part-time job has fallen by a fifth in the past five years.
So, does this mean that British teenagers are now more afraid of hard work? Probably not. Young people feel that going out to work will affect their performance at school, and they are under more pressure now to study hard and get good exam results — and a good job in the long term. However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that ''Properly regulated part-time work is a good way of helping young people learn skills that they will need in their working lives.'' In reality, it's all about getting the right balance between doing part-time work and having enough time to study and rest.
