Temporary student employment, commonly known as student labour is an important aspect of Slovenian education system. It is commonly perceived that student labour policy offers two significant advantages. Firstly, it is believed that it enables students to earn extra funds, which enables the poorest individuals to participate in higher education and secondly, that it offers relevant competencies which help student in the future labour market participation. This research paper shows, that this consensus is not a result of some rational deliberation, but instead a direct consequence of years long political power struggle, which is plagued with manipulation of data and discourse. Student labour is extremely deregulated, which results in several negative policy outcomes. Our results show that one fifth of all students work within full-time student employments. This has significant negative impact on the quality of their education. Moreover, most student labour employments feature low-skilled and work intensive conditions, which has a negative effect on obtaining relevant competencies. Strong demand for student labour incentivises youth to participate in education just to formally obtain student status. A significant proportion of students prologue their studies or even fail to finish their studies. Student labour therefore, paradoxically, doesn’t work as a helping mechanism for socially underprivileged, nor does it improve students’ relevant competencies. Quite the contrary, this research paper finds ample evidence, that student labour policy encourages social stratification. In the concluding part this research paper offers some policy ideas that would address key problematic paradoxes of the current student labour policy.
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