Working over Christmas

Scotland celebrates Christmas and Hogmanay ( New Year) every December.

Our festive season is at its busiest November through to January. You can see details of our winter festivals: Winterfest Glasgow 2008 and the Winter Wonderland in Edinburgh.

This is a good time of year to find temporary work. You can try out a different type of job while making extra money at the same time.

To be able to work in Scotland you need to have a Visa.

Student Visas

Having a student Visa means you are allowed to work for 20 hours a week part-time during term time. But during the holidays you can work full-time.

Work Visas

From 27 November 2008, the working holiday Visa was replaced by Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme. This Visa is only available for 18-31-year-olds who are from Australia, Canada, the USA and Japan. To qualify for this visa, people also need to be sponsored by the government of their own country.

More information about Visas is available from the Relocation Advisory Service and the Home Office.

Festive Work

If you fall into any of these categories you can work over the festive period in Scotland. Here is a selection of the type of work available over the festive season:

Retail

Shops become busier and open for longer hours over the festive period. This means that most shops in the cities are looking for more staff to meet the demand.

Hospitality

Hotels, bars, restaurants and cafes will be looking for extra staff to cover Christmas and New Year. For example, you can find waitressing, bar staff, cleaner, and chambermaid positions.

Post Office

The Royal Mail delivers post to every address in the Scotland. In December they will employ around 20, 000 extra staff. Christmas casual staff tasks include sorting the post, bagging and labelling items and moving mail bags and boxes.

www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/product1?catId=16000165&mediaId=58400695

Father Christmas / Santa Claus

Various department stores will be hiring someone to play Santa Claus. You dress up as Father Christmas and you are paid to speak with children and give them a present. You can find vacancies advertised in the local job centre, vacancies board in department stores or local newspapers.

For this type of job, you will need an enhanced disclosure certificate.

It is a document, which has details of spent and unspent convictions, or it will say that there is nothing held on central records. If you work with children  or young people you need an enhanced disclosure. More information is available on the Disclosure Scotland website.

Winter Festival Staff

With so many exciting events over the winter period, extra staff are always welcome. Find out more about Winter Festivals in Scotland.

Volunteering/Charity work

Why not gain experience with working on a voluntary basis. Find out more about volunteering at Project Scotland.

Careers Scotland can also help you find voluntary work.

Related Links

• Winter Festivals – Edinburgh during the festive season
• Can I work in Scotland?
• Do I need a Visa?
• Finding work
• How do I find work?
• Self-Employment
• You can find more information on temporary Christmas jobs from Recruitment Agencies.