Abstract

University students in the UK increasingly engage in paid work and the hospitality sector attracts many students due to the accessibility of jobs and schedule flexibility. Yet, little is known about their work experiences and their distinctive worker needs are often overlooked. Drawing on findings from 44 interviews with student-workers on zero-hour contracts in hospitality, this policy and practice-oriented paper identifies key challenges experienced by this distinctive worker group as well as corresponding student-worker needs and proposes a worker-centred framework for change – 8F Framework – aimed at improving the culture of employment and working relations for student-workers. The paper argues that gaining greater appreciation of student-workers' contribution to the UK hospitality sector as well as the challenges they encounter in hospitality workplaces provides a good starting point to think through ways of addressing key contemporary challenges, such as post-Brexit and pandemic-related labour and skills shortages, poor staff retention and the negative image of the industry.