Of the 2.6 million students in France, 40% have a paid job (excluding internships) in addition to their studies. With the lengthening of study time, the search for funding through paid activities can be crucial.
In recent years, digital platforms and applications have emerged specifically for students, promising them easy access to varied, well-paid jobs that are easy to fit into their schedules.
Noting the rise of digital employment platforms, a team of sociologists (" Worlds of student employment in the digital age ") studied the effect of these digital intermediaries on student employment, as part of theCall for projects "Forms of the collaborative economy launched by the research departments of the Ministries of Labor and Solidarity (DARES and DREES).
Three promises of platforms
Digital employment intermediaries for students take the form of sites, web platforms, or mobile apps, which make three general promises:- To find a job quickly for students who are mostly young, well connected and spontaneously turn to the Internet;
- allow for easy integration of the professional schedule into the academic schedule - evolving throughout the year;
- work according to your financial needs, carrying out one-off missions without any long-term commitment, thanks to the micro-entrepreneur status.
Four types of digital employment platforms and intermediaries
The authors of the survey underline, in this regard, "the diversity of digital intermediaries for access to employment for students, and a stratification of student jobbing according to the platforms used".They identified four types of platforms:
- Aggregators of job ads, or "job boards". "Candidates can activate filters to find the right job and then apply via the site, usually with a CV and cover letter but without publicly displaying their identity or skills.
- Relational platforms: these are digital networks of generalist or specialized ads (for example, in childcare) that function "like social networks where trust is born of mutual acquaintances or common knowledge that must reassure on the skills of applicants".
- Platforms that the authors describe as "elective" where "students build a profile, work on their presentation, make a reasoned choice of photography, and imagine the skills desired by the parents who will be their employers. These platforms advise to use the status of micro-entrepreneur without imposing it, but they ensure an intermediation work in the form of pre-filled administrative forms, guides to obtain CAF aid (personal assistance services), and proposals to take charge of the payment.
- Algorithmized platforms that ensure the matching, via an algorithm, between candidates and employers who are consequently blind to the personal characteristics of students who have been pre-selected by the platform beforehand. "The work of staging oneself is here lightened, even non-existent. The role of the platform is particularly strong here and most often takes the form of an application, which manages the job proposals, "pushes" them to the pools of available students, forwards the remuneration, and evaluates the two parties at the end of the mission.
"These four figures of digital intermediation draw constraints, appropriations and variable competences for the students"
The social characteristics of students vary according to the type of platform. "The elective and relational platforms, which place a great deal of emphasis on personal networks and encourage social interaction, attract a more privileged and feminized audience: women are clearly over-represented on relational and elective platforms (in relation to the activities they engage in), as are the children of executives and higher intellectual professions and students from Paris.On the other hand, algorithmic platforms and job boards welcome a more diversified and less privileged public, " which seems to go in the direction of a lesser discrimination of certain profiles on these online spaces: students with scholarships, students with a migratory background and foreign students are thus over-represented on job boards and algorithmic platforms".
Changes in the relationship to paid work and time use
The work via platforms is indeed singular in different ways:- Short assignments characterized by less than average working time;
- the fragmentation of work and temporal flexibility: " looking for assignments implies, on the part of students, to manage solicitations, to be on the lookout, and the permanent quest for temporal optimization can be done at the price of stress or tension, particularly perceptible for students of algorithmic platforms ";
- "If the multiplication of varied missions allows for the valorization of diverse experiences in a CV and perhaps improves professional integration, it also has the consequence of limiting work sociability and creating a possible disengagement of young people who "pile up" missions without any link between them.
The status of micro-entrepreneur is not very protective
The employment status of students who have gone through the digital world is very varied: from the absence of a work contract (moonlighting), to the status of micro-entrepreneur, or to more traditional forms of contract (fixed-term contract, permanent contract, temporary work, etc.).Informal/undeclared work concerns a significant proportion of working students: " from this point of view, micro-entrepreneurship constitutes a protection, even minimal, compared to the absence of a contract.
The status of micro-entrepreneur, frequently required to work via these platforms, allows students to be independent and not to depend on a particular employer; however, it protects students less in case of lack of missions or work accidents. It also generates an administrative burden. " Some students are surprised by the constraints linked to the management of such a status, contrary to the promises of the platforms which praise its simplicity.
Difficulties in managing a double activity
The quest for a "balanced" time budget finally appears to be a central dimension in the way students view paid activity via digital intermediaries.It would allow them to optimize job search time, travel between sites, and make the most of interstitial time (gaps in the schedule). "This is at least the impression that students have. Thesurvey shows, however, that " overall, jobs obtained through platforms (compared to those obtained through traditional channels) do not necessarily facilitate the reconciliation of paid work and study time".
Uberization of student work remains limited
The main finding of this survey is that "digital intermediaries have not revolutionized access to student employment."- Digital modes of access to employment are often embedded in more traditional social mechanisms: "peers, friends or family circle, continue to play an important role in accessing employment, or even accessing employment platforms".
- Access to employment via a platform or an application still only concerns a minority of students: only one in five students has used a digital employment application or platform to access employment.
- The content of the activities has changed little with the use of digital technology: "tutoring (15% of students working), baby-sitting (18%), hotel and restaurant work (13%) and sales (16%) remain the most common activities carried out by students, and have remained stable since the 2000s.
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