Australian school students' views regarding their learning from paid and unpaid work in the workplace were examined. The data sources were as follows: (1) a questionnaire administered in 13 schools in New South Wales and South Australia to students in years 10, 11, and 12; (2) school and locality-based case studies; and (3) interviews with employers, key policymakers, and researchers. Nearly 90% of the students in paid employment liked their jobs at least somewhat. Although negative comments about paid jobs were less frequent than positive comments, they were often quite strongly worded, which was thought to possibly account for the largely negative views about part-time jobs held by a number of education department officials. Only 15.6% of students with work experience placements volunteered comments that they enjoyed their work. Students did not report a great deal of transfer of learning from school to work experience. Customer service skills were the most important type of learning transferred from paid work to work experience programs. Of those students who had participated in both paid employment and a work experience program, 65.6% reported learning the most from paid work. However, 68.4% stated that their work experience program was still useful. (Contains 22 tables and 9 references.) (MN)