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In this interim report, the findings reveal the importance teachers place on introducing children to the world of work. The survey asks 250 primary schools heads and teachers across England about their opinions on career learning in primary and its impact.

Headline findings: (1) The majority of teachers answering our survey believe children should be learning about the world of work and different jobs in their first years of primary school; (2) Overwhelming majority of primary schools were already carrying out activities with the aim of increasing children's understanding of the world of work; (3) Most primary schools have not heard about the Government's new Careers Strategy, which specifically mentions primary for the first time; (4) In line with our previous work in secondary, nearly all teachers in our survey agreed that introducing children to the world of work was important in: Linking learning to the real world and in doing so increasing motivation to work hard, Challenging gender stereotyping about jobs and school subjects, Broadening aspirations; (5) While teachers appreciate the importance of these activities, there are challenges which prevent them being organised on a regular basis.

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This chapter addresses the difficulties faced by many UK secondary school students in securing meaningful workplace experience in a medical context and which specifically explores job shadowing as an option for resolving this problem. It focuses on the problem identified in the study: inequitable access to periods of work experience of value in progression to highly selective courses of study at elite universities. The chapter seeks to add to a growing literature exploring the issue of equity in employer engagement in education. It reveals a situation whereby links between secondary school students and employees within the National Health Service (NHS) are numerous but are clearly patterned by social relationships which are rooted in social class. In the medical profession, imbalance in the distribution of social capital is compounded by more structural educational inequality, such as universities offering places only to students with demonstrable workplace experience.

Abstract from publisher's website.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.717. Show less

This study seeks to analyse whether greater teenage engagement in school-mediated career development activities, which include elements of direct exposure to the working world, can be associated with more positive attitudes towards schooling. The 2012 PISA survey asked a series of questions which explore teenage participation in career development activities and subsequent attitudes towards schooling. In the analysis, four activities are isolated (participation in internships, job fairs, job shadowing and speaking with a careers advisor in school). Only a minority of countries taking part in PISA 2012 opted into these questions and of these six have been selected for this analysis (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland and Ireland).

The report finds that there is a strong, statistically significant relationship between participation in career development activities and more positive attitudes towards schooling. The most consistent positive effects are found in relationship to speaking with a careers advisor in school and attending a job fair. Of the six countries, it is teenagers in Finland and Ireland who demonstrate the greatest levels of responsiveness to participation in career activities. Further analysis will explore the relationship between participation in career development activities and academic achievement.

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Building on new theories about the meaning of employability in the twenty-first century and the power of social and cultural capital in enabling access to economic opportunities, this book considers how employer engagement is delivered and explores the employment and attainment outcomes linked to participation. The book is a companion volume to 'Understanding employer engagement in education' (Mann, Stanley and Archer, 2014) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 117.1548]. Introducing international policy, research and conceptual approaches, contributors to the volume illustrate the role of employer engagement within schooling and the life courses of young people. The book considers employer engagement within economic and educational contexts and its delivery and impact from a global perspective. The work explores strategic approaches to the engagement of employers in education and concludes with a discussion of the implications for policy, practice and future research.

Abstract from publisher's website with additional information.

The contents are as follows: Preface / Andreas Schleicher; Introduction / Anthony Mann; 'Employers at the heart of the system?': the role of employers in qualification development / Prue Huddleston and Andrea Laczik; Investigating how benefits of an industry-school partnership vary between industry sectors / Kerry Lee, Fatima Abdulghani and John Hope; Who is getting prepared?: Year 11 students' views on careers education and work experience in English secondary schools / Julie Moote and Louise Archer; Competences, capabilities and capitals: conceptual paradigms in the educational-employment relationship / Michael Tomlinson; Socialised social capital?: the capacity of schools to use careers provision to compensate for social capital deficiencies among teenagers / Anthony Mann, Elnaz Kashefpakdel and Christian Percy; Tell it like it is: education and employer engagement, freelance and self-employment / Prue Huddleston and Heidi Ashton;

'Selling the dream': stakeholder perceptions of the translation of employability policy into university strategy / Roy Priest; 'My brother's football teammate's dad was a pathologist': serendipity and employer engagement in medical careers / Steven Jones, Anthony Mann, Elnaz Kashefpakdel and Rachael McKeown; Someone in your life who really believes in you: evidence and practice in employer mentoring / Tristram Hooley and Jonathan Boys; Aligning school to work: assessing the impact of employer engagement in young people's transition from education to work / Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin; Ethnographies of work and possible futures: new ways for young people to learn about work and choose a meaningful first career / Nancy Hoffman with Tobie Baker Wright and Mary Gatta; What impact can employer engagement have on student attitudes towards school and their academic achievement?: an analysis of OECD PISA data / Elnaz Kashefpakdel, Jordan Redhill and Matteo Schleicher; Young people in the labour market: how teenage employer engagement makes a difference to adult outcomes / Elnaz Kashefpakdel, Anthony Mann, Rachael McKeown and Jordan Redhill; Insiders or outsiders, who do you trust?: engaging employers in school-based career activities / Christian Percy and Elnaz Kashefpakdel; Between two worlds: linking education and employment / Simon Field; Conclusions: implications for policy, practice and research / Prue Huddleston. Show less

In May 2018 Teach First, a social enterprise which aims to address educational disadvantage in England and Wales, commissioned Education and Employers Research, London to undertake research into career-related learning (CRL) in primary schools. The term 'career-related learning' comprises of early childhood activities in primary schools designed to give children from an early age a wide range of experiences of and exposure to education, transitions and the world of work. The main purpose was to scope Teach First's future work on potential programmes in primary schools. This would complement existing arrangements already in place for the Careers and Employability Leadership Programme (CELP) in postprimary schools. Three research questions were examined: What is the taxonomy of teacher roles within a primary context with regards to CRL? What does success look like for a programme of career-related activities in the primary school setting? What does good/interesting careers provision look like in a primary school setting? The research involved an international literature review, including contributions from 12 OECD countries (Austria, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa, Wales, United States), a qualitative online survey of primary schools complemented by in-depth case studies of good/interesting policies and practices, and an expert panel discussion. The findings within this report demonstrate the important role that senior leaders and teachers can play in embedding CRL in primary schools.

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This report presents the evidence on the operation and impact of careers events held in UK schools and colleges. Literature and new data were gathered and analysed to understand the potential impacts and optimal delivery of three related types of careers events aimed at supporting the career decision-making of young people: careers talks, careers carousels and careers fairs. The paper draws on a mixture of academic literature and new survey data collected by the Education and Employers research team at careers events. The paper uses data collected from a student feedback survey, testimonies from teachers and employee volunteers as well as a follow up survey of experienced practitioners which tested the insights for best practice gathered from the other sources.

Edited excerpt from publication.

A related report is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 129.866. Show less

Launched in 2014, Primary Futures was designed to provide UK schools with easy access to individuals willing to provide free voluntary support across a range of areas, including: (1) providing first-hand insight into jobs and careers, with many thousands of volunteers across the country identifying themselves as being able to speak with specific experience of being an apprentice, running their own enterprise, using mathematics or modern foreign languages at work, or working in the fields of science and technology; (2) being a potential reading or number partner; or (3) being willing to be considered as a school governor.

In this paper the authors discuss the impact, demand and implementation of employer engagement in primary education. They assess recent literature on the subject and find that while research into the impact of employer engagement activities on the learning and progression of children is limited, it suggests that employer engagement, if done correctly, can be positively associated with improved attainment, the development of non-cognitive skills demanded by 21st century employers and changed attitudes towards the world of work and the relationship between the classroom and the workplace.

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The report presents the evidence on the operation and impact of careers events held in UK schools and colleges. Literature and new data were gathered and analysed to understand the potential impacts and optimal delivery of three related types of careers events aimed at supporting the career decision-making of young people: careers talks, careers carousels and careers fairs. The main questions addressed in the study included: What impacts can be expected from career events in terms of the educational and employment outcomes of young people? Can impact be expected to vary by pupil type (achievement level, occupational ambition, age, gender)? What benefits can be expected from different formats of engagement (careers fairs, careers talks, careers carousels) and how can event design optimise beneficial outcomes? This review was designed to identify evidence within the literature to inform the optimal design of events so the best outcomes can be achieved for the young people taking part.

Edited excerpts from publication.

A related report is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 130.576. Show less

This report, published with support from Lifeskills created with Barclays, sets out findings from a survey of 1,744 young British adults aged 19-24. The survey undertaken on behalf of Education and Employers by YouGov investigates the experiences of respondents as they engage in transitions which take them from education towards the working world. The focus of the report is on work related activities commonly undertaken by schools and colleges to help prepare them for such transitions, relating specifically to employer engagement in education. The report sets out the recollections of these young adults on actions taken by educational institutions to prepare them for the working world; their perceptions of the quality of their experiences; where they feel greater preparation would have been valued; and, using statistical regression analysis, what it was that schools and colleges did which actually helped with those transitions.

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