Start careers-learning in primary schools, says report

Teach First and the Education and Employers charity have publish new research highlighting the importance of getting children to consider their future careers in primary schools.

The two charities are calling on policy makers and schools to tackle career stereotypes and narrow aspirations that form in the primary years and last into adulthood.

The findings are included in a new report entitled “Career-related learning in primary: The role of primary teachers and schools in preparing children for the future”. The report was commissioned by Teach First with support from the AKO Foundation and undertaken by the Education and Employer charity with DMH Associates. It comes as part of new efforts by Teach First to drive better career-related learning in primary schools across England, to help children see the relevance of their education and opportunities ahead without holding biased assumptions and having narrow aspirations.

It is being published to coincide with a new report by the OECD and Education and Employers entitled ‘Envisioning the Future of Education and Jobs: Trends, Data and Drawings’ which is also being launched during the World Economic Forum. The OECD are calling on governments, employers and educators to work far more closely together to help broaden young people’s horizons, raise their aspirations, and provide them with the vital work-related knowledge and skills.

Teach First and the Employers and Education charity are recommending careers-related learning to be utilised as early as the primary years.  

Despite the best efforts of some primary schools, career-related learning for younger children has not improved. Now, building on the success of Teach First’s Careers and Employability Leadership Programme – which trains middle leaders in secondary schools to take responsibility for careers provision – the charity will look to develop the first careers-related training programme for teachers and leaders in primary through pilots in schools serving disadvantaged communities.  

These pilots would aim to provide career-related learning for all children, especially those who have less access to careers expertise outside of school, as is often the case for disadvantaged pupils. The work will tackle issues like career stereotypes which can form early and negatively affect what young people can achieve – with constraints linked to perceptions of social class, intelligence, and opportunities with limiting ideas of ‘men’s work and women’s work’.  

The pilots will have three main aims: enhancing the understanding of jobs and careers; growing the skills required in a modern labour market; improving pupil outcomes by changing pupil attitudes and enhancing their understanding of what different subjects can lead to.  

The report from Teach First and Education and Employers charity sets out examples of good career-related learning, despite challenges such as finding space and time in the curriculum to provide opportunities to learn about the world of work. The report identifies that an essential ingredient for successful primary schools is buy-in from senior leadership. It also recommends that primary schools should develop an approach to career-related learning that enables students to engage progressively in a wide range of experiences of transitions and the world of work.  Children should have encounters with the world of work from the age of 5 to see the connection between what they learn and what they might want to do in the future.