Reflections on education, life and the world around us.

A part-time job can pay the bills. What if it could also build a career?

Walk into any city today and you will see college students working part-time.

Some deliver food.
Some work in retail.
Some take up shifts in restaurants.
Some drive cabs or work through gig platforms.

And before we judge them, we should pause.

For many young people, this is not about pocket money.

It is about paying fees, supporting a family, managing living expenses or simply becoming financially independent.

There is dignity in honest work. Every job that helps a young person stand on their own feet deserves respect.

But as an educator, I find myself asking a different question:

If a student has to work while studying, can that work also help build the student’s future employability?

The gig economy is not a small phenomenon

India’s gig economy is growing rapidly. The Government of India, citing NITI Aayog projections, says India’s gig workforce is expected to grow from around 1 crore workers in 2024–25 to 2.35 crore by 2029–30.

So this is not a temporary phenomenon.

It is becoming part of the way India works.

Delivery, mobility, logistics and other platform-based services are creating flexible earning opportunities for millions.

And that flexibility is particularly attractive to students.

But there is another side to the story.

Income today does not automatically translate into employability tomorrow.

The employability question

Mercer | Mettl’s Graduate Skill Index 2025 assessed more than 1 million students across 2,700+ campuses and reported overall graduate employability of 42.6% in 2024.

Whatever measure we use, the message is clear:

Having a degree is no longer enough.

Employers increasingly want people who can analyse, communicate, solve problems, work with technology, adapt and learn continuously.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 identifies analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, leadership, creative thinking and technological literacy among the most important skills for today’s workforce.

That changes the way we should think about a student’s part-time job.

Not every part-time job has to be directly related to the degree

A Commerce student need not necessarily find a part-time accounting job.

But imagine the possibilities.

A Commerce student working in a retail store could learn:

inventory management + billing + customer behaviour + sales + merchandising.

A Business student working in a restaurant could learn:

operations + costing + customer service + digital marketing + supply chain.

A Computer Science student could work with a small business and help with:

website development + data analysis + cybersecurity + social media automation.

A Psychology student could assist in:

counselling centres + HR departments + recruitment + behavioural research.

A Media student could work with:

content creation + photography + video production + social media management.

Suddenly, the part-time job is no longer just a job.

It becomes a laboratory.

The question students should ask

Perhaps before accepting a part-time opportunity, students should ask three questions:

1. Will I earn?
   I need to meet my immediate financial needs.
2. Will I learn?
   Will this experience give me a skill that becomes valuable later?
3. Can I show what I learned?
   Can I turn this experience into a portfolio, project, certification, reference or demonstrable skill?

If the answer to all three is yes, the student has found something much more valuable than a part-time job.

They have found a career-building opportunity.

And colleges have a role too

This should not be placed entirely on students.

The UGC itself recognises the importance of internships and apprenticeships in connecting higher education with the world of work. Its internship guidelines describe actual work experience as an important route to developing professional abilities, and UGC’s current framework includes apprenticeship-embedded degree programmes.

Perhaps colleges need to go one step further.

Instead of simply asking:

“Where did you work?”

we should ask:

“What did you learn?”

Instead of treating a student’s part-time work as something outside education, we could help them reflect on it, document it and connect it to their discipline.

Because there is a huge difference between working for survival and working with a learning lens.

Sometimes, of course, survival must come first.

And that is perfectly legitimate.

But whenever circumstances allow, let us encourage our students to make their hours count twice:

Earn today.
Learn today.
Build for tomorrow.

Because the best part-time job may not simply be the one that pays the most per hour.

It may be the one that makes the student more valuable per hour in the future.

— Dr. Uthira D
Principal, Hindustan College of Arts and Science