Employing a Student – Guide for Departments
We have produced this guide to help you and your student employees through the process.
Whether you are looking for someone to stuff envelopes for one afternoon or a part-time administrator to work throughout the academic year, the Centre for Career and Skills Development can be of assistance.
The Centre for Career and Skills Development operates an online searchable vacancy database in order to assist students in finding part-time, temporary and vacation work as well as placements and graduate roles. Although we primarily advertise for external employers, the CCSD also aims to advertise all appropriate casual, non-academic jobs within university departments.
What exactly is the Vacancy Board?
Why recruit internally instead of hiring a recruitment agency to manage the whole process?
When do I have to contact the Careers Centre?
Can I get some advice when drafting the advert?
How many hours are students permitted to work?
What do I do if I want to keep a student on for longer than originally stated?
What happens if either the university or the student wishes to terminate the contract?
How do I monitor the progress of student staff?
How much should students be paid?
What do I do about timesheets?
Vacancy Board
Our online Vacancy Board is the easiest way to advertise any part-time or casual work. Along with placing your vacancy online, when registered, an email alert with your vacancy details is automatically sent out to all our registered students who match your requirements, thus generating immediate response to your advert. There are currently over 2,000 City students who regularly access our online database to view vacancy opportunities.
The CCSD can offer university schools and departments access to a broad student base, with a wide range of skills and experience. Students can fill vacancies in –
1 Administrative/clerical work, either unskilled or skilled
2 Research projects
3 General unskilled or semi-skilled work
4 Manual and technical support work
Why recruit internally instead of hiring a recruitment agency to manage the whole process?
Recruiting a City University student through the CCSD is a straightforward and simple process and offers numerous benefits to both Departments and students.
Benefits for Departments:
1. Your opportunities will be advertised to a large number of high-calibre candidates – over 2,000 current students are registered with our vacancy service
2. You will have access to a wide pool of expertise in accordance with the numerous UG and PG courses currently offered at City, which will enable you to recruit successfully not only for general administrative roles but also for more specialised roles, such as IT Development or Market Research.
3. On campus jobs are very popular with students and you are guaranteed to get a very good response to your advert.
4. You will be saving money for your Department as all the services the CCSD offers are completely free of charge.
5. You will have access to experienced professionals that can help you draft your advert in order to maximise response rates and who can offer you advice for every step of the recruitment process.
Benefits for students:
1. Students will have the opportunity to develop their skills and employability, thus improving their future employment prospects.
2. They will be able to support themselves during their studies, thus having fewer reasons to drop-out of their course.
3. By working on campus, instead of having to travel to and from work, they will have more time for their coursework commitments.
4. Overall this will improve the student experience and satisfaction.
How to employ a student
1. Contact the Employer Liaison Team at CCSD
Via telephone – x0160 or x8425
Via E-mail – vacancyboard@city.ac.uk
Via website – complete our online Vacancy Submission Form
2. CCSD to advertise vacancy via website and E-mail alert service. Students to apply directly to department.
3. Department selects students, conducts interviews, determines suitable candidate
4. Department informs CCSD about placed student
5. Department to complete CAF01 form which can be downloaded from the HR website and return this form to HR. HR will then issue a temporary contract for the student, the maximum length of which can be 3 months. The Department will have to renew the contract after 3 months if they wish to employ the student for longer.
6. Once a contract is in place please submit a Monthly Timesheet for Temporary Staff/Research Workers form to the Payroll Office. For details on how to complete this timesheet click here.
When do I have to contact the Careers Centre?
As soon as you know what your staffing requirements are. Although our email alert system enables us to promote your vacancy in a very quick and efficient way, thus generating immediate response to your advert, we advise you to send us details of your vacancy as soon as they are available and allow at least 1 week for the advert to be online. We normally put up a vacancy within 2 working days upon receipt of the advert, however, if your request is urgent we will try to publish your advert on the same day in order to make sure that the information is disseminated to a sufficient number of potential applicants.
Help with drafting your advert
Our experienced employer liaison team can advise you on issues such as:
• When and for how long to advertise your vacancies
• How to draft your advertisement
• Appropriate salaries to offer
• How to target the right students
• How to maximise responses to your ads
Just give us a call on 0160/8425 or email vacancyboard@city.ac.uk to discuss your requirements.
How many hours are students permitted to work?
The CCSD Code of Practice states that students, working for the university may not work more than 20 hours per week during term time and full-time during vacations. This includes international students who are authorised to work in the UK. A copy of our Code of Practice is available from the CCSD website.Please also remember that students are legally entitled to a lunch break of at least 30 minutes if they work more than 6 hours.
What do I do if I want to keep a student on for longer than originally stated?
If you want to extend a student’s contract you will need to contact your HR Business Partner or Co-ordinator. You will normally be asked to resubmit a CAF01 in order for HR to renew the student’s contract.
What happens if either the university or the student wishes to terminate the contract?
The contract is terminable by one week’s notice on either side.
How do I monitor the progress of student staff?
Temporary staff are not required to have formal performance appraisals. However, we recommend that student temps are provided with feedback of an informal nature, so that they gain a valuable experience from working on campus. Some students may ask for references for future employment. Each school and department is responsible for determining whether this is suitable.
How much should students be paid?
Students need to be paid no less than the National Minimum Wage which is currently set at £5.80. The CCSD recommends that student temps should be paid in accordance with university wage rates for temporary staff, which are available on the HR website.
What do I do about timesheets?
Timesheets are available from the Payroll office and website as indicated above. They must be completed for all student staff working for the department, authorised by an appropriate person and forwarded directly to Payroll.Timesheets are processed on a monthly basis and student temps are paid monthly, as per other university employees. They must be received in the Payroll & Pensions Office by the 10th of the month (3rd in the case of December) to ensure that payment is made at the end of that month.
Back to top