The career module contains settings to alter difficulty with career or school/university as well as the speed homework is completed.
It also contains settings to allow children and teens to quit school. The only way to allow quitting school is to change the school "career" into a full-time career. That's the only way the core game will allow them to be quittable. As a result, part-time jobs are not an option WITH school being active on a Sim. The setting must be turned-off if a Sim is going to school and wants a part-time job. Also, as the setting documentation describes for those settings, when re-enrolling in school, the player should always use the MCCC Sim command menu rather than trying to do it through the phone. Using the phone can cause last exceptions and might not re-enroll them correctly.
In the Sim Flags menu, there is an option on Sims older than Teens to Freeze Career.