Work is in modern societies often seen as incompatible with childhood due to the historical experience of children being forced to do work that is harmful or exploitative (UNCRC: 32 & 36). This has led most developed countries to protect children from exploitation through legal restrictions on children’s work. However, in modern societies, an early introduction to the world of work can be essential for developing concrete and transferable skills that are important for the growing self-awareness and growth of young people, including achieving agency (Erss, Loogma & Jõgi, 2024). In a situation where 80% of the upper secondary general education students in Estonia have gained some work experience either through doing paid work on holidays, in parallel with school, in student work camps or as volunteers (Erss & Loogma, 2025), students who graduate from school with no work experience can be at a disadvantage. This paper investigates what students think they learn at work and whether and how work experience in general and the competencies they acquire at work are related to their agency in school. The concept of agency is informed by ecological agency theory (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; Priestley et al. 2015) and uses constructs such as agentic engagement (Reeve, 2013; Reeve & Shin, 2020), persistence (Vaughn, 2021; Dweck, 2006) and resistance to perceived injustice (Mameli et al. 2019). The instrument for measuring student agency in secondary schools was developed by Erss in 2022 and first presented in the article of Erss, Loogma and Jõgi (2024). The study uses a mixed-method approach: first, a quantitative study of 3179 high school students from 30 schools in Estonia was conducted, using descriptive statistics. Next, interviews with 13 students with work experience were conducted to understand what work experience meant for students. The quantitative instrument was validated using factor analysis and reliability tests. Next, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to explore whether students’ demographic characteristics (gender, mother tongue), school-level factors (teacher support), personal characteristics (perseverance), academic achievement, work experience and specific skills learned at work were related to student agency in school. The results show that work experience, along with male gender, Estonian mother tongue, teacher support and perseverance are positively related to agency. Students learn various skills when working and noticeable growth in self-confidence is achieved. The study confirms the thesis of the ecological agency theory that different learning environments can support different agency-related competences

Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Ann Mische. 1998. What Is Agency? American Journal of Sociology 103: 962–1023. [ Erss, Maria, and Krista Loogma. 2025. Upper Secondary School Students’ Learning atWork: The Effect on Agency in School. Social Sciences 14: 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14010017 Erss,Maria, Krista Loogma, and Anna-Liisa J.gi. 2024. The Effect of Teacher Agency Support, Students’ Personal Perseverance and Work Experience on Student Agency in Secondary Schools with Estonian and Russian Instructional Language. Cogent Education 11: 2314515. Ministry of Social Affairs. 2020. Analuus varase tookogemuse soodustamiseks kooliealiste noorte seas. Tallinn: Sotsiaalministeerium. Mameli, Consuelo, Luisa Molinari, and Stefano Passini. 2019. Agency and Responsibility in Adolescent Students: A Challenge for the Societies of Tomorrow. British Journal of Educational Psychology 89: 41–56. [ Reeve, Johnmarshall. 2013. How Students Create Motivationally Supportive Learning Environments for Themselves: The Concept of Agentic Engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology 105: 579–95. Reeve, Johnmarshall, and Stephanie H. Shin. 2020. How Teachers Can Support Students’ Agentic Engagement. Theory into Practice 59: 150–61. Priestley, Mark, Gert Biesta, and Sarah Robinson. 2015. Teacher Agency. An Ecological Approach. London: Bloomsbury. Vaughn, Margaret. 2021. Student Agency in the Classroom: Honoring Student Voice in the Curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.