Vol. 6, No. 2.

ISSN: 1473-8376
www.heacademy.ac.uk/hlst/resources/johlste

ACADEMIC PAPER

Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students:

Developing the Skills for Employment?
Emma Martin ([email protected])
Centre for International Hospitality Management Research,
Sheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB

Scott McCabe ([email protected])

Christel DeHaan Tourism and Travel Research Institute, Nottingham University Business
School, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham NG8 1BB

DOI:10.3794/johlste.62.133
Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education

Abstract
Increasingly, postgraduate students enrolled at UK universities are turning to part-time paid
employment to help fund them through their studies. While a number of recent studies have
sought to explore employers’ use of student labour, there is little known about the nature of
students’ part-time work experiences in relation to skills attained or developed in the
workplace. Reflecting on Yorke and Knight’s (2004) three aspects of employability – process,
core and personal skills – this paper seeks to explore the experiences of hospitality and
tourism postgraduate students undertaking part-time work in the UK and considers the skills
they develop through paid employment in relation to future employability.
Keywords: Postgraduate students; Employability; Part-time work

Introduction
Increasingly, students enrolled at UK universities are turning to part-time paid employment to
help fund them through their studies. In the ten years to 2006 the number of full-time
students in paid employment grew by more than 50 per cent (TUC, 2006), and currently 56
Emma Martin is the Deputy Director for the Centre for International Hospitality Management
Research at Sheffield Hallam University. She teaches human resource management and
organisational behaviour across the hospitality, tourism and leisure programmes. Her current
research interests are in employment and work within the hospitality and tourism industries,
including the role of orientations to work and lifestyle.

Scott McCabe is lecturer at the Tourism and Travel Research Institute, Nottingham
University. His research interests are tourism consumption and experience, place-identity
relationships, language and communication in tourism, qualitative research in tourism, and
the nexus between tourism and everyday life.
Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
per cent of all full-time students undertake paid work (Finch et al., 2006). This is often
thought of as a win-win situation, where employers benefit from a flexible, cheap and
intelligent pool of labour, and students are able to work to help finance their studies.

Evidence suggests that the majority of the part-time jobs available to students are broadly
classifiable as within the service sector, including hotels, hospitality and catering, other (that
is, fast) food and beverage outlets, retailing, and, in the summer months, tourism and visitor
attractions, sporting venues and leisure events. Indeed, over 65 per cent of student
employment is concentrated in hospitality and retail alone (TUC, 2006). As Lucas (2004)
notes, in the hospitality and tourism workplaces, this ‘casualisation’ of the workforce has
become a key strategic approach to human resource planning. Likewise, in a recent study on
the employment patterns of Nottingham students, it was revealed that students make up 28
per cent of Nottingham’s entire hospitality sector workforce (Lashley, 2005). The seasonal
fluctuations of many businesses would appear to make the sector ripe for part-time student
employment opportunities at times that suit both employers and employees. There are, in
many cases, added benefits that such employment opportunities confer on young people: for
example, the opportunity to socialise, to obtain discounts on leisure and entertainment
events, travel opportunities, and the possibility of developing skills for future employment.

While a number of recent studies have sought to understand the nature of the student
employment relationship (Curtis and Lucas, 2001), to assess the strategic logic behind
companies’ choice of hiring part-time student workers in the hospitality industry (Lucas and
Ralston, 1996), and to consider the need to process students’ work experiences into the
curriculum (Harvey et al., 1997), little is known about the nature of students’ part-time work
experiences in relation to skills acquisition.

Recent studies have identified that students often meet the requirements of hospitality and
tourism employers since they are generally assumed to have good social skills and are able
to generate customer satisfaction through appropriate levels of customer care (Lashley,
2005). Lashley also draws on earlier studies to argue that, in many respects, students have
appropriate experiences as consumers of tourism and hospitality which inform their
understanding of service culture and consumers’ expectations, and that these qualities often
make up for a lack of detailed training provision by employers. These more social or ‘soft’
skills have been identified within the hospitality and tourism industries as increasingly
important personal characteristics. The physical appearance and attitude of staff are thought
to contribute to overall corporate image and brand (Warhurst et al., 2004). Therefore, there is
a need to understand the possible relationships between the range of skills attained and/or
developed in the workplace and future employability.

The skills debate becomes a more complex issue in the case of masters degree programmes
with the wide diversity of postgraduate students in the UK. Across UK higher education
institutions (HEIs), international student numbers have increased by over 60 per cent over
the past five years (Universities UK, 2005), and in small-scale research it has been shown
that around 50 per cent of postgraduate student intake onto programmes in tourism and
hospitality have no prior work experience (McCabe and Martin, 2005). Therefore, the range
and levels of students’ existing skills vary greatly. With the graduate labour market becoming
more complex and volatile and the number of graduates expanding, the employability of
postgraduate students is becoming more important. Indeed, a report by Oxford University
showed that 43 per cent of employers felt the main drawback to recruiting postgraduates was
their lack of industrial and commercial experience (Oxford University Careers Service, 2003).
While it is accepted that work experience is a vital part of skills acquisition, we know little
about these students' experiences outside the classroom while on taught postgraduate
courses.

With an increased focus on employability and post-education career opportunities in recent

years, the relationship between work experience and undergraduate study has been more
closely scrutinised and is therefore much better understood (for example, see: Curtis and

Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 29 – 40 30

Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
Shani, 2002; Ford et al., 1995). Curtis and Shani explored the link between part-time work
experience and student performance, and their findings also highlighted the benefits of
working on skill development. This paper, however, seeks to explore the experiences of
hospitality and tourism postgraduate students undertaking part-time work in the UK, and to
identify the nature of part-time paid employment opportunities that exist for them, the level of
employment among this cohort, and the influence of these jobs on perceived skills
acquisition and development. Further, we aim to discuss the impact of these jobs on
students’ self-assessment of their study performance and identify those skills perceived to be
developed in their paid work experiences.

The changing nature of skills

Alongside the lack of understanding of the skills developed by students through part-time
work is a wider debate on the changing nature of skills in the 21st century. In the context of
the tourism and hospitality industries, these skills debates are particularly pertinent given
importance of attitude and appearance in the service industries (Nickson et al., 2005).
Grugulis et al. (2004) identify the changing nature of skills thus:

One of the fundamental changes that has taken place in the last two decades has
been the growing tendency to label what in earlier times would have been seen by
most as personal characteristics, attitudes, character traits or predispositions as
skills. (Grugulis et al., 2004: 6).

This was also the finding of recent research into the skills required by the hospitality industry.
Warhurst et al. (2004) noted that corporate image and brand are of growing importance and
that employers increasingly place an emphasis on a different range and types of skills
required from their employees. Studying the Glasgow hospitality industry, their research
highlighted that:

• 83 per cent of employers attached some importance to employees’ dress

sense/style
• 78 per cent of employers attached some importance to employees’ voice/accent
• 70 per cent of employers attached some importance to employees’ physical looks

These ‘soft’ skills, with an emphasis on the social and aesthetic, were seen as the most
important to employers. With interaction between staff and customers constituting an
essential aspect of the product offering, the skills employers require are changing, and while
technical skills can be taught, the ‘right kind of attitude and appearance’ are skills which are
less easy to ‘manipulate’ or embed within a higher degree curriculum. While the emphasis
here so far has been on the employers and the recruitment of skilled workers, within the HE
academy there is a need to address how these ‘soft’ skills or generic skills related to
employability fit into programmes. Perhaps these skills are best learnt through the
experience of seeking, obtaining and utilising part-time or full-time employment rather than
through being incorporated into the curriculum at all.

The paid work vs. study skills relationship

The importance of employability skills not related to specific subject knowledge has been
highlighted in studies such as the Dearing Report (1997) as an important area for
consideration in relation to employability. Indeed, this has been reinforced by Harvey et al.
(1997), who identified: “The need for developing a range of personal and intellectual
attributes beyond specific expertise in a disciplinary field is becoming increasingly important
and is likely to be more pressing in the working world of the 21st century” (1997: 5). This
research highlighted that employers require adaptive and flexible recruits who can rapidly
integrate into the company and exhibit a range of interpersonal and social skills alongside
their educational attainments.

Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 29 – 40 31

Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
However, research on paid work and study has focused on three areas. First, research has
focused on employers’ skill demands, with Nickson et al. (2005) highlighting the
organisational need for employees to have the right mix of skills. Second, within the
hospitality and tourism field, work has discussed the employment of students rather than skill
development: for example, whether the employer’s approach to the recruitment of student
labour is a strategic decision or a pragmatic response (Lucas and Ralston, 1996); or
identifying employers’ and students’ needs along with the advantages and disadvantages for
both parties in these working arrangements (for example: Curtis and Lucas, 2001). Third,
research has considered the effects of paid employment on undergraduate students’
academic studies. Early work, based mainly on assessing income and numbers of students
in employment, highlighted the need for a broader consideration of the impact of employment
on academic studies (Ford et al., 1995). More recent work has highlighted both the negative
impacts of paid employment on study: for example, on health and well-being, study
outcomes and the quality of the higher education experience (Finch et al., 2006), Other
studies, however, have suggested that, while the adverse affects of paid employment on
study increase with the number of hours worked, working has been shown to be beneficial in
enhancing students’ skills and confidence and in providing an understanding of the world of
work (Curtis and Shani, 2002). All of these studies acknowledge that part-time paid
employment is increasing and being used as a strategy for students to deal with the
increasing costs of higher education.

Employability skills
While consensus exists among key stakeholders about the importance of employability, there
is still debate as to how employability skills are best embedded within the curriculum (Nield
and Graves, 2006). Key work defining employability skills from Knight and Yorke regards
employability as “a set of achievements – skills, understandings and personal attributes –
that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen
occupations, which benefit themselves, the community and the economy” (Knight and Yorke,
2003:7). Considering the aspects that make up employability, Yorke and Knight (2004)
identify three areas: personal qualities, such as self-confidence, independence and stress
tolerance; core skills, including numeracy, language skills and global awareness; and
process skills, such as problem-solving, team-working and applying subject understanding.

With a focus on employability skills, other research, such as that by Raybould and Wilkins
(2005) exploring the undergraduate hospitality student and the needs of hospitality
employers in Australia, has addressed the importance of these ‘skills’ to stakeholders such
as industry, education and students. The majority of the 371 hospitality managers surveyed
in Raybould and Wilkin’s study considered that there was a need for “graduates to have a
range of generic interpersonal and human relations skills whilst technical skills were seen as
comparatively unimportant” (2005: 205). Managers ranked interpersonal skills and the
problem-solving and self-management areas as the most important ones for graduates.
Recently, in the UK, work by Nield and Graves (2006) has assessed different stakeholders’
perceptions of skills required by graduates for employability. Drawing on data from focus
groups, their research found that, while all process skills were deemed to be equally
important, certain core skills and personal qualities were considered to have greater
significance (see Table 1). Overall, their results highlighted that self-confidence was the key
underpinning area for development to enhance employability.

Personal qualities Core skills Process skills

Self-awareness Self-management All 16 as important
Reflectiveness Global awareness
Independence
Self-confidence
Table 1: Employability skills: areas of importance
Adapted from Nield and Graves (2006)

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?

There is still a great deal to be learnt in this area, for instance: how academic courses link
into employability skills; what role the work placement and other forms of work experience
may play in developing these areas; and how ‘soft’ skills and personal attributes as
employability skills can be linked to the curriculum. These issues are further exacerbated
within postgraduate courses that do not provide students with an intense period of work
placement. Consequently, what role does part-time work experience play in the development
of employability skills for this group of students? While this has been considered at
undergraduate student level (e.g. Davies, 2000), the discussion has not reached the
postgraduate arena, something this paper aims to rectify.

Method
The purpose of this research was to expand upon a small-scale study developed for use at
Sheffield Hallam University, which has resonance at a national level. This research aimed to
explore the role of part-time work and its impact on students’ patterns of study in masters
degrees in tourism and hospitality management (Martin and McCabe, 2004; McCabe and
Martin, 2005). These studies indicated that 48 per cent of the cohort had taken part-time
jobs, and a further 40 per cent were job-seekers. Although the studies highlighted that 71 per
cent felt that part-time work had impacted upon their studies, many had received training and
69 per cent felt that their work experiences would enhance their future employability. The
current study sought to explore these issues further with a national sample of postgraduate
hospitality and tourism students in the UK. The study employed a survey methodology as the
best method of targeting the 26 hospitality and tourism management postgraduate course
providers. The aim was to achieve a representative sample of postgraduate experiences
across England and Wales. The questionnaire was based upon an adapted version of Yorke
and Knight (2004). The survey asked students to rank the extent to which they felt their part-
time paid work experiences had developed a summarised range of skills (see Appendix 1)
and included a more general range of questions about their paid work and study
experiences. The survey was distributed to course leaders of tourism and/or hospitality
management programmes in March 2006 to administer. A total of 1,050 surveys were sent
out to a total of 26 HEIs, yielding a response from eight institutions and a total usable
response of 95 completed surveys. The research team undertook follow-up email and
telephone contact with course leaders to encourage completion and response rates. This
represents just under a 10 per cent response rate, which, although disappointing, is perhaps
consistent with other postal survey response rates (Finn et al., 2000). One possible reason
for the low response rate was the timing of the survey, which coincided with the Easter break
and assessment period.

Findings
Profile of respondents
From the survey of HE institutions in the UK providing postgraduate courses in hospitality
and tourism, 95 completed and usable questionnaires were returned from eight universities.
Of the 95 responses, 93 were from full-time students and two from part-time students. Table
2 shows that the subject area of the respondents was split quite evenly across the two areas.

Subject % of respondents
Hospitality 23
Tourism 26
Tourism and Leisure 3
Hospitality and Tourism 37
Undeclared 11
Table 2: Respondents’ subject area

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
Seventy-six per cent of those surveyed were female and 24 per cent male and, as Table 3
highlights, 88 per cent were aged 30 or under. These figures are consistent with gender
patterns shown in, for example, hospitality masters courses in the UK. According to HESA
figures for 2004-2005, female to male enrolment ratios were above the national average at
around two to one (Jameson and Walmsley, 2006).

The age profile of the respondents can be used to gain an indicative insight into the level of
prior paid work experience achieved by the cohort, although these data do not tell us about
the levels and types of work experience within the group, and could be distorted by periods
of unemployment, etc. As 58 per cent of respondents were under the age of 25, the majority
of the sample can have no more than four years’ work experience. Indeed, prior to their
courses of study, 55 per cent of respondents had worked full time, with length of service
ranging from three months to 40 years. However, 54 per cent of those who had worked full
time had two years’ or less work experience; 23 per cent had over five years’ experience.

Age % of respondents
21 to 25 58
26 to 30 30
31 to 35 4
36 to 40 1
Over 40 7
Table 3: Respondents’ age profile

In terms of nationality, over 14 countries are represented in this sample, highlighting the
wide-ranging and diverse appeal of these courses. The countries students are mainly drawn
from are: China and Hong Kong (30 per cent of respondents); the United Kingdom and
European Union (29 per cent of respondents); and Taiwan and India, with 9 per cent of
respondents each.

Main findings and discussion

The results of the survey show that 62 per cent of respondents were working part time while
on a full-time masters programme. This figure is almost exactly the same as found in
previous studies undertaken by the researchers in the previous pilot studies (Martin and
McCabe, 2004; McCabe and Martin, 2005). It is also interesting to note that 10 per cent of
these students held more than one job. The main employers of these students were:

• Hotels (44 per cent)

• Restaurants and fast food outlets (30 per cent)
• Pubs and bars (12 per cent).

Rates of pay for these students varied, with most earning between £5 and £6 per hour (73
per cent), and the majority (61 per cent) working between 11 and 20 hours per week. At the
time of this survey, the national minimum wage in the UK was £5.05 per hour, so this survey
reveals that almost 20 per cent of respondents were earning less than the minimum wage.
The length of time spent in paid employment may reflect the high percentage of overseas,
full-fee-paying students in the sample, who are restricted by visa regulations to a maximum
of 20 hours’ paid employment each week on a full-time student visa.

As 62 per cent of the participants had been employed in their current job for over three
months, we can assume that most students had found a stable and satisfactory employer or
a job to suit their needs.

For full information on these issues, see Tables 4, 5 and 6.

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?

Pay rates per hour % of respondents Hours per week % of respondents

£4 to £5 19 Less than 10 19
£5 to £6 73 11 to 20 61
Over £6 8 Over 20 20

Table 4: Pay rates Table 5: Hours employed per week

Length of time % of respondents

employed
Less than 4 weeks 15
1 to 3 months 24
3 to 6 months 31
Over 6 months 31
Table 6: Length of time employed in current job

The next series of questions asked students to rate their reasons for taking a part-time job.
While the highest ranking response was ‘earn money to contribute to living costs’, which
corresponded to Lashley’s earlier study with students in Nottingham (2005), the majority of
other responses showed a non-financial motivation for working. The second most cited
reasons for employment was ‘developing practical skills related to my course’, followed by
‘adding to students’ experiences of the UK’, and ‘enhancing employability’, which were all
highly rated. This indicates that students value a more rounded experience of life in the UK,
including a range of extramural activities such as the opportunity to gain paid work
experience. The full list of responses from most important to least important are given below:

• To earn money to contribute to living costs

• Developing practical skills related to my course
• Adding to experiences of the UK
• Enhancing my employability after graduation
• Earning money to have a social life
• Meeting new friends
• Earning money to contribute to course fees.

Thus, student motivations for taking part in paid employment might not be solely attributable
to a desire for skills development. In fact, students participating in paid employment indicate
financial and social reasons alongside skills development to be particularly important or
relevant to this aspect of their UK experience.

Employability and skills

Overall, 86 per cent of respondents felt that part-time working had added to their skills. The
survey asked respondents to rate the skills that they felt their part-time work had helped them
to develop. As discussed in the methodology section, the list of skills included in the survey
were based upon the three areas of employability skills by Yorke and Knight (2004).

Table 7 displays the skills ranked by the highest mean value order and, as can be seen,
skills such as adaptability, team-working and self-awareness are high on the list of those that
students felt they were developing during paid employment. Interestingly, while developing
practical skills to support their studies was high (second) in earlier rankings, this element was
ranked lowest (15th) in relation to the skills that they felt they developed from their part-time
working experiences.

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?

Skill Mean Value

More awareness of how I interact with people 4.1
Adaptability skills 4.1
Team-working skills 4
Feeling more comfortable in busy and stressful situations 3.9
Skills specific to the job 3.7
Communication skills 3.7
Self-confidence skills 3.7
Time-management skills 3.7
Ability to relate to a wider range of people 3.6
Language skills 3.5
Problem-solving skills 3.5
Self-presentation 3.5
Independence 3.4
Practical skills to support your studies 3.3
Commercial awareness 3.3
Computer literacy 1.7
Other

Table 7: Students’ perception of the skills most developed during part-time work

The interesting point to make about this finding is that there appears to be a disconnection
between the stated reasons for working part time and the student's self-assessment of the
types of skills developed through their paid employment. This poses a series of hypothetical
questions. Is it the case that we don’t have the right postgraduate courses or appropriate
curricula, where adaptability, flexibility, self-confidence, team-building and communication
skills are stressed and given enough depth of coverage? Or perhaps the work undertaken by
this group is the wrong type of work or the wrong level of work for these students? Or,
alternatively, is it possible that the students don't recognise the skills that they develop as
being relevant or useful for their future career pathways or development? There seems to be
an inability on the part of some of these students to associate the skills developed through
work with their future career development skills.

What is also notable from these findings is the emphasis identified by students on the
development of personal skills categories. Nield and Graves’ research (2006) (see Table 1)
identified that process skills were all highlighted as important, and only four personal skills
types and two core skills types were considered to be significant. Our research clearly shows
a different emphasis on the importance of personal skills in a posteriori reflection on the
types of skills developed. Table 8 shows the results of the self-assessment of skills in ranked
order according to students’ perceptions of skills developed through part-time employment
and profiled by aspect of employability.

Type of skill
Key skills developed during part-time employment according to Knight
and Yorke
Adaptability skills Personal
More awareness of how I interact with people Personal
Team-working skills Process
Feeling more comfortable in busy and stressful situations Personal

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?

Communication skills Core

Self-confidence skills Personal
Skills specific to the job Process
Ability to relate to a wider range of people Personal
Time-management skills Process
Language skills Core
Self-presentation Personal
Problem-solving skills Process
Independence Personal
Commercial awareness Process
Practical skills to support your studies (interesting given above) Process
Table 8: Aspects of employability developed through part-time work

Part-time work and hours for study

The study also explored the relationship between, and impact of, part-time working and full-
time study in two areas. First, the impact that part-time employment had on full-time study
was examined; and second the number of hours students studied outside lectures and
seminars was discussed.

Seventy-three per cent of respondents felt that their part-time work had indeed impacted on
their studies. This impact was not always negative, as the following list of most likely impacts
reported by students illustrates:

• I feel more financially secure

• My hours for study are reduced
• I feel too tired to study
• I feel my knowledge of the subject area has increased
• My personal feelings of stress have increased
• I have trouble balancing work and study
• My motivation to study is reduced
• My working hours conflict with class participation.

Financial security was an obvious issue for students, and part-time working eased this
stressor. Likewise, knowledge and skill development was a positive element. However, the
reduction in time for study and being tired through balancing employment and study
commitments were the trade-off for this group. An interesting issue raised by the study is in
relation to the hours of study students working part time reported in comparison to their non-
employed counterparts. When asked how many hours per week they studied, not including
lectures and seminars, the students in part-time employment were more likely to be studying
harder. The results can be found in Table 9.

Hours per week Those working part-time Those not working

Less than 10 13% 41%
11 to 15 25% 7%
16 to 20 32% 21%
21 to 25 14% 17%
26 to 30 10% 3%
Over 30 6% 10%
Table 9: Respondents’ hours of study

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
Forty-one per cent of those students not working part time study for less than ten hours per
week compared with 13 per cent of employed students.

This non-employed group differentiated themselves from the part-time employed group in
other ways too. Of those currently with no part-time work, 53 per cent highlighted that they
were in search of part-time employment. The reasons behind this differ from those who had
held employment for a longer period of time. The main reasons behind this group’s
motivation for employment were:

• Adding to UK experiences
• Enhancing employability
• Developing practical skills
• Meeting new friends
• Earning money for living costs
• Earning money for social life
• Earning money for course fees.

Adding to UK experiences, enhancing employability and developing practical skills were at

the top of this group's priorities, and financial aspects related to earning for living expenses
or social life were at the bottom. We could question here whether we have two different
groups of students – a more exclusive, well-off group and those who are struggling to get by.

One thing is reasonable to assume: overall, 83 per cent of all those surveyed felt that part-
time working during postgraduate study improved a student's employability on graduation.
This is seen as a positive aspect of the outcome of students’ experiences in paid
employment, and one that could be further incorporated into the development of curricula in
the future.

Conclusions
This paper has presented the findings of a study into the paid employment experiences of
students enrolled onto masters degree programmes in hospitality and tourism management
in the UK. It has also explored the employability skills gained or sought through paid
employment and how these might complement or veer away from those career/employability
skills embedded within their curricula. The study highlighted the problem that, although
research into employability skills and their development among graduates of hospitality and
tourism management programmes is beginning, it is patchy and almost exclusively related to
undergraduate programmes and skills development. The postgraduate student cohort on
hospitality and tourism courses in the UK is diverse, having variable levels of related skills,
training and employment experience in the hospitality and tourism sector when they embark
on study. This explorative study has revealed that, similar to other work on undergraduates
(see: TUC, 2006; Finch et al., 2006), around 62 per cent of the respondents held a paid part-
time job during their enrolment period, and the majority found these experiences to be
positive in terms of their perceived contribution to future employability. The findings of this
study have generated a number of questions and propositions that could usefully be the
subject of future study.

While students took work in the sector to develop practical skills related to their course, it
was in the area of ‘personal qualities’ (Yorke and Knight, 2004) that they perceived skill
development to take place during employment. The technical skills they thought they would
develop are of far less importance to employers (Raybold and Wilkins, 2005) than the
interpersonal and self-management skills they gained. Highlighting the skills developed
through part-time employment for this group of students is important and contributes to future
employability as these are more often considered the skills that matter (Grugulis et al., 2004;
Nickson et al., 2005).

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Martin and McCabe (2007) Part-time Work and Postgraduate Students: Developing the Skills
for Employment?
We hypothesised that we might be dealing with distinctly different and divergent groups
within the sample: those who see the vocational relevance of the skills developed within their
curricula as being complemented by skills developed through part-time work experiences;
and another group for whom the skills aspect of part-time work is less important than the
experience of a broader and more rounded UK life. We suggest that further research is
needed on this aspect of our students’ experiences to try to identify further connections
between the expectations and career aspirations of our students. There is the distinct
possibility that we have some students who do not place particularly high importance on the
vocational/employability aspects of their courses or part-time work experiences.

We posed a number of questions also requiring further research. To what extent should we
try to embed the ‘softer’ social skills identified as being important and significantly developed
through paid employment among our respondents within our postgraduate curriculum? Does
this contribute to what we call 'masterly' types of skills, or is it that these skills are required
more by a casual and flexible, lower skilled workforce? Perhaps the type of work undertaken
by this group is the wrong type of work or the wrong level of work for these postgraduate
students? Or, alternatively, perhaps students don't recognise the skills that they develop as
being relevant or useful for their future career pathways and we need to stress their
importance and relevance within our training/curricula? Another related issue is the extent to
which professional (personal) development planning is embedded within or alongside
masters level curricula and the relationship between professional development and masters
course content. These questions in this interesting area of our provision require more
research if we are to develop creative and employable masters graduates of the future.

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Appendix 1
5 4 3 2 1 0
Practical skills to support your studies
Skills specific to the job
Computer literacy
Ability to relate to a wider range of people
Communication skills
Language skills
Self-confidence skills
More awareness of how I interact with people
Feeling more comfortable in busy and stressful
situations
Adaptability skills
Team-working skills
Commercial awareness
Problem-solving skills
Time-management skills
Self-presentation
Independence
Other____________________________

Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 6(2), 29 – 40 40