Oxford summer jobs in 2023: Your FAQs answered! (Part 1)

Although at the time of writing we still find ourselves in 2022, it’s never too early to start looking ahead to next summer, especially if you’re planning to work in one of the many excellent summer roles that will be on offer in Oxford.

At OSJ, in summer 2022 we helped more than 50 candidates to land roles across marketing, customer service, teaching, administration, pastoral & welfare and more. Having worked with so many excellent candidates, we know the frequently asked questions that are top of peoples’ minds, especially if they’re new to Oxford or it’s their first time considering a job with a leading summer school.

With that in mind, over the course of three bite-sized blogs, we will break down the most frequently asked questions we received last summer, in the hope that it will help you work out your plans for summer 2023.

And don’t forget, if you feel you need some assistance finding the right role for you, we would be delighted to help you. Simply complete the form on our homepage and one of our team will get straight back to you to discuss your options!

Very active and full of opportunities!

Looking back to last summer, July and August 2022 marked a return to a summer more like the one we’re used to seeing in Oxford, featuring thousands of students here for short courses (if you visited the city centre during those months, you’ll understand what we mean!).

In order to guarantee that those students were getting the most out of their experience, and crucially that they were safe, Oxford’s leading summer employers had to make sure they had enough talented staff with a range of skills on their books.

We are confident that summer 2023 will see even more of the same; however, with more certainty about the world returning to normal than there was this time last year, expect the summer schools to be trying to get more of their hiring sorted earlier in the year.

In addition, another key difference will be that many more positions will be taken by staff returning – ie those coming back to the employers from 2022.

So, if you’re looking to sort out an Oxford summer job then we’d highly recommend getting organised early!

Although summer brings a time when many of Oxford’s resident student population decide to return home, the city’s popular standing with tourists both national and international means that in summer the city is busier than at any other point in the year.

In a typical year, approximately 7 million tourists visit Oxford, with the majority of those coming to the city in the summer. This means that all service industries relating to this influx of tourists will experience a peak in demand for staff.

And a significant proportion of those visitors are educational tourists – students coming to the city for short courses in English language and many more subjects, with one of the multiple private providers.

These range from ‘budget’ providers of group English language tuition – where the students will likely stay in homestay accommodation with local families – to a select number of premium providers who offer accommodation and board in colleges of the University of Oxford.

You can find out more about Oxford’s key summer employers in our dedicated article, here: What are the different type of summer school in Oxford? (And what jobs do they have on offer?)

Yes – definitely!

Regardless of your skills (ones you have and ones you’d like to build) or your career so far, there will be a role available to suit you.

When someone says “summer school job” the first thing that probably springs to mind is teaching. And this is a key sector, with all of Oxford’s key summer schools requiring excellent Oxford summer teaching staff to ensure that the core academic experience of their many students is up to the standard they expect.

However, teaching is just one role that’s available. On campus, there are roles available in the pastoral support of the students, ensuring they are safe and enjoying their experiences at their summer schools – these are typically referred to as Counsellor or Student Helper summer roles, and within that there are various levels of seniority based on previous experience. There are also roles available ‘behind-the-scenes’ providing administrative and organisational support, logistical support, organising and helping with airport transfers, and so on.

We appreciate that with a myriad of roles, and with a variety of organisations recruiting for those same roles, the whole summer school job landscape can be confusing. Don’t forget that Oxford Summer Jobs exists purely to simplify candidates’ job searches, and we’d be delighted to help you with yours. Use the form on our home page to register and we’ll take over from there!

Absolutely!

As we’re sure you’ll appreciate, international summer schools for thousands of young adults aren’t just thrown together the week before. It takes months of planning and preparation to get everything booked, recruit all the staff (running the necessary background checks) and find and support the students and their families.

For that reason, Oxford’s leading summer schools tend to have a variety of roles that run from the preceding winter right through until the end of the summer.

Oxford Summer Jobs will be supporting Oxford’s leading summer schools with the placement of candidates into longer term roles in operations, marketing, customer service, student admissions and more. We’ll therefore be in-the-know on all the best longer-term role, so don’t hesitate to register with us if you’re looking for a longer-term position.

We’re sure you’ve got lots on, and it’s important not to get too carried away. For summer 2022, a great deal of the recruiting happened very late on in the cycle – although as mentioned above we expect things to be a little more ‘normal’ this year with less COVID-related uncertainty.

However, there are definitely a couple of small things that we would recommend taking a few hours to complete in the autumn and winter.

The first would be to have a broader think about your summer plans and what your priorities will be. If earning money and building your skills are the most important things to you, then we’d recommend planning carefully before committing to anything else like holidays, festivals etc. This is because Oxford’s leading summer schools will be looking for candidates who can work as much of July and August as possible – and those candidates who need a week or two off in the middle of that aren’t as good a fit as those who can work the whole period.

In addition, if you don’t have accommodation in the city but would like to stay on and work, have a think about what arrangements you might need to put in place should you not be able to land a residential position (only a minority of Student Helper / Counsellor positions are residential, and an even smaller number of Teaching roles are).

Our final tip would be to have an idea of the kind of role and employer that would suit you. At OSJ, we’re the experts in clarifying the summer jobs market in Oxford, and would be delighted to help you find the role and employer that would suit you and your goals. Our service is free and totally independent, and we exist to match great candidates to the right positions. To get started, complete our registration form and one of our friendly team will get back to you with some initial questions!

Summary

Whether you’re a seasoned temporary summer worker or embarking for the first time on your search, we’re sure you have plenty of questions about Oxford summer jobs in 2023. The key thing to remember at this stage of the year is that Oxford’s leading employers are multi-dimensional organisations that need lots of people with lots of different skills to make them work successfully. If you can begin some light-touch planning now, it will benefit you in the early spring, when they really begin their recruitment drives in earnest. And if you’d like OSJ to simplify your search, please don’t hesitate to register with us!