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Federal Work-Study

Hiring a Student

Here are the steps for on-campus departments to hire a Purdue Fort Wayne student:

  1. Review the Vision for Student Employment.
  2. Create a job description that includes student learning outcomes.
  3. Create a Handshake Account, if you don’t have one currently. Review the Handshake instructions on how to create an account as well as the Handshake Terms of Use.
  4. Post your student employee positions on Handshake. Use the job description you wrote as a guide to create the posting. Please make sure you select “Work-Study” as the position type if you are intending on using federal work-study funds.
  5. Once approved, the job will be live on Handshake and students will then have the opportunity to search and apply for your position.
  6. Review student documents and decide which students you would like to interview. If you need to confirm that a potential candidate has work-study funds, go to Cognos>PFW Shared Reports>Work Study>Students Eligible for Work Study Positions. Run report and enter the Student ID number for your potential candidate. If the report does not give you results, the student does not have a work-study award and you cannot use work-study funds to pay the student. If the student wants to be considered a work-study student, then the student needs to submit a Financial Aid Adjustment Form [PDF] to Financial Aid. If you have questions or you cannot access the Cognos report, please contact Financial Aid.
  7. Interview selected students. Use some of these sample interview questions [PDF] so that you know what you can and can’t ask in an interview.
  8. Make the job offer. Review the Purdue Fort Wayne student pay scale for guidance on what hourly rate to offer. When you are ready to hire, all positions classified as work-study need the Work-Study Authorization Form.
  9. Once you have made an employment offer, you must also fill out a short survey. All paperwork for your new employee will be processed using Success Factors. Please inform students of the importance of checking their email for any additional paperwork or signatures that may be required to complete the process.
  10. Prepare for your student employee's first day of work. Consider requiring your student employee to participate in the Student Employment Training program. 

Work-Study Forms, Dates, and More

Here is other important information to keep in mind:

  • Beginning and ending dates that the student is able to work in a term can be found online.
  • Your department should keep track of each student’s earnings to compare to their work-study award; once they’ve used up all their work-study funds, you can make a change on their time card to reflect the change in wage funding and continue their employment.
  • Monitor the Student Employment Work History Form (RJISEWH) on a regular basis to ensure accuracy. The student cannot exceed their Federal Work Study awarded amount.
  • Students are unable to use work-study funds for hours worked prior to being awarded and accepting the work-study award.
  • Once students are no longer employed in your department, you’ll need to complete the PA form to separate or end the appointment, and send the form to Human Resources.

Purdue University Fort Wayne is an Equal Access/Equal Opportunity University.