Aim: To provide a general overview of challenges students face when

balancing work and study.

Overview of discussion questions:

1. What are the important areas of life?

2. What are the sources of stress?

3. What is your ideal balance?

4. Do you have a student loan?

5. Do you get money from parents? Does this help with your expenses?

6. Have you ever experienced any negativity towards your part-time work interfering with studies?

7. Under what condition would you stop working?

Session Structure

The welcome: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to join out discussion of work-life balance
among students.

Opening: 1. Tell us who you are 2. What are you studying 3. Where you work and the approximate hours
per week. 4. What you enjoy doing when you are not working.

Introduction: 1. What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear about WLB?

Work-life balance: The juggling act of paid work and the activities outside of paid work that are
important to people. E.g. sports, child care, music, community involvement etc.

2. Think back to when you first started working and studying. What were the main reasons for this?

Key Questions: 1. What are the important areas of your life? (list)

Exercise 1: draw your current life in a pie graph. Divide it into the major parts.

2. What are the challenges you face when working and studying? (list) 103

3. What is your ideal balance? a.

Exercise 2: Now draw your ideal life. May include any sort of activity. (Show example).

Closing: Summarise written notes with respondents. Ensure areas of ambiguity are clarified. Anything
missing from the focus group that you think needs to be here? Thank them for their participation again.
Please sign the consent form. As it shows I have asked and you have given me the permission for your
participation in this focus group.