TV dragon bites into red tape that stops teens finding Saturday jobs
Jenny Campbell tells Sian Griffiths rules are preventing the young from getting work that teaches them about finance
Jenny Campbell, one of the newest investors on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den, is calling for a bonfire of government red tape, which she says is preventing businesses from hiring young teenagers for weekend work. She wants to see a revival of Saturday jobs. “Having a Saturday job was the making of me,” she told Money.
The cash machine entrepreneur believes youngsters should be taught about money and how to handle it in primary school, and that teenagers should take Saturday jobs to learn the employment-related skills needed to succeed once they are adults.
The daughter of a banker, Campbell, 56, says she worked weekends to pay for treats — and ended up earning enough to buy all her own clothes, which gave her confidence as well as valuable employment skills.
“I started work at 13 in a newsagent, serving customers, weighing out sweets, cashing up at the end of the day and sweeping up, all day Saturday and half of Sunday. I think I was putting about £30 in my pocket at the end of the weekend and I became self-sufficient in buying my own clothes, which gives you a lot of pride as well as a lot of confidence,” she said.
“So when I did go to work at 16 at a bank I was completely comfortable working with people, talking to customers, handling money and so on.”
Campbell left school at 16 and achieved her banking qualifications at night school. After joining NatWest’s head office in 1997, she went on to lead a management buyout of Hanco ATM, RBS’s cash machine business, which was renamed YourCash. The firm provides ATM services to thousands of businesses across Europe.
The multimillionaire joined Dragons’ Den last August and has two grown-up sons, Rik and Tom. She fears it has become much more difficult for teenagers to get weekend work. “When my boys were 13 I couldn’t get them a job anywhere — garden centres, supermarkets, corner shops. It seemed that regulations and legalities meant that companies just can’t take on 13-year-olds, so I think children miss out on that experience these days. My boys really wanted to get a Saturday and Sunday job — beyond just a paper round — but couldn’t find them anywhere. Companies won’t pay 13-year-olds.”
The number of children with part-time jobs has fallen in recent years. According to official figures, the percentage of teenagers combining part-time jobs with school or college has slumped from 40% in the 1990s to about 20% in 2012. In 2012, 260,000 teenagers had a Saturday job, while 435,000 had one in 1997.
Children aged 13 and over are allowed to work part-time but companies must apply for a licence to hire staff under the age of 16. Under-16s are allowed to work for a maximum of two hours on a Sunday.
Campbell argues that working part-time instils good workplace attitudes such as turning up on time, being able to look customers in the eye and shake hands, and dressing appropriately.
An ambassador for the charity Young Enterprise, she also thinks children should study entrepreneurship at school and learn how to set up their own business. Her oldest son, Rik, quit his well-paid job in corporate finance to co-found a restaurant business, which includes the Indian eaterie Kricket in London.
Having a Saturday job can also help teenagers learn how to negotiate a pay rise. Given the publicity about the BBC’s gender pay gap, Campbell made sure when she started on Dragons’ Den that she asked whether she was getting the same as the other new dragon, Tej Lalvani.
“Last year when I was invited into Dragons’ Den and given my contract, I asked: ‘Is that the same as what Tej gets?’ And they said, ‘Yes,’ so that’s fine, as long as it’s fair. The money’s not that important to me, but I asked out of principle.”
Campbell is following in the footsteps of Karren Brady, a judge on BBC1’s The Apprentice and vice-chairman of West Ham United, who encouraged her daughter Sophia to take a Saturday job at the clothing retailer Hollister in Solihull.
“She folded clothes, hoovered and worked on the till,” said Brady. “It helped her realise there is a whole world outside school. It helped her develop her whole personality, not just academic skills. Saturday jobs teach you about responsibility, about turning up on time and not letting people down,” she said.
The chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver has also said he wants his children to take part-time and holiday jobs and learn the value of money. He worked in his parents’ pub as a teenager.
Campbell says parents can also help their children develop financial skills by giving them a piggy bank from a young age, letting them count the change in the supermarket and playing board games such as Monopoly.
“I am an ex-banker and my father was a banker. I’ve had piggy banks and saving schemes since I was very young. Both my boys have had bank accounts since the day they were born,” she said. “We played Monopoly and other similar games. It’s important: it’s mental arithmetic as well, not just money, so it helps all of those skills.
“It’s probably even more important these days with young people, because as we move more towards to digital money, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the value of cash when it’s just a click rather than a pound in your pocket.
“I always used to say in my cash business, ‘Cash is still important,’ and one reason is because it helps you to budget.”
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