Last week, El País, Spain’s leading newspaper, published an article in its Education section on the opportunities and challenges of combining higher education with paid work. Lara Maestripieri, sociologist of work and PI of the Spanish unit in NEXT-UP, contributed to the piece by sharing insights from her research on young people’s education-to-work transitions.
The article highlights a key finding from her interviews: working while studying is not inherently an advantage. Its effects depend on the type of job and, above all, on the socioeconomic circumstances of students. While some can use work as an opportunity to gain relevant experience and explore future careers, others are driven by financial necessity into low-paid student jobs that may undermine academic success and reinforce existing inequalities.
These reflections draw on findings from NEXT-UP, a Horizon Europe project investigating young people’s educational and labour market transitions across Europe. Through longitudinal qualitative research, the project explores how institutional contexts and social inequalities shape the opportunities—and constraints—that young people encounter as they move into adulthood in comparative perspective across five countries in Europe: Spain, Finland, Germany, Estonia and the Netherlands.