Does part-time job affect University Students’ academic progress? The case of Makerere University’s teacher trainee employment in greater Kampala Secondary schools, Uganda

A study on employment and academic progress of undergraduate teacher trainees at Makerere University Uganda was necessitated by the rising number of trainees taking-up employment in secondary schools within Kampala City, which may cause untimely completion and high dropout rates. However, no study has been done to establish the motives for employment, who is likely to seek employment, the job demands and how work affects the academic progress of trainees. Using a pre-tested, valid and reliable questionnaire, the study investigated the impact of employment on the academic progress of 226 teacher trainees in Year I and Year II during the academic year 2016/17. The motives for work were mainly financial to help with upkeep and tuition payment. Employment did not significantly (p < 0.05) impact on the students Commutative Grade Point Average (CGPA) and student progression. However, the findings suggest that offering a B.Sc. /Ed increases the likelihood that a student would seek employment but not to a statistically significant extent (0.888 > 0.05). Students who are on Normal Progression (NP) were less likely to be employed or sponsored by the government. It is recommended that further studies need to examine the robustness of the findings and generalisations with different university population groups. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.