Self-employment of students: Factual constraint or striving for implementing business ideas?

Aim. The work aimed to identify whether working while studying at a university in selfemployment actually contributes to gaining practical experience in professional activities and developing professional competencies required undr contemporary market, or student selfemployment is a factual constraint that can be a barrier to quality education. Objectives. The work seeks to determine the main reasons for student self-employment; to enounce the advantages and disadvantages of this form of work for students; to reveal the impact of self-employment on the development of professional competencies; to characterize the difficulties that students encounter when combining work and study within self-employment; to propose a set of measures aimed at a more effective combination of work and study. Methods. In order to substantiate scientific provisions and conclusions, the work employed general scientific methods (classifications, system and comparative analysis, scientific synthesis) and sociological methods (questionnaires). Results. Based on the sociological research, the authors established that students choose selfemployment as a form of work mainly due to the need for an additional source of income, as well as the desire to implement their business ideas. The advantages of self-employment for young people include the receiving of income from entrepreneurial activity, independence in terms of work organization and allocation of working time, as well as the opportunity to gain work experience and practical knowledge. The disadvantages of this form of employment for students include difficulties in arranging a balance of work and study. Most respondents believe that entrepreneurial activity does not create problems with training, but a third of the selfemployed students surveyed draw attention to the lack of free time. The results obtained showed that working as a self-employed person forms personal competencies, develops practical skills or professional knowledge. Conclusions. Student self-employment contributes to the formation of professional and personal competencies, if this refers to work in the acquired profession. The authors proposed a set of measures aimed at a more effective combination of work and study, which involve support for self-employed students from higher education institutions (information support; provision of a more flexible educational schedule; recommendations from the university regarding the forms and volume of employment, working conditions and choice of professional area).