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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 explores careers talks in schools to build on earlier work by the authors in light of new assessments of the impacts of careers activities on the economic outcomes of young people and how these activities can be best delivered. [The authors] were inspired by, among others, S. Jones et al. Which examines the reflections of 380 young adults on their school-mediated employer engagement experiences, finding that the clearest benefit lies in Cultural Capital, followed by Social Capital and then by Human Capital. While Kashefpakdel and Percy [2016] focused only on the wage premium associated with 'outside speakers,' two studies since have referenced it in the context of a broader set of careers-related activities in schools. The weak results for the school-led careers activities bear further examination. Various explanations present themselves for why school-led careers activities did not correlate more closely with wage outcomes, despite being structurally similar to other activities that were convincingly correlated.

Abstract from publisher's website.

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

There is significant policy interest in the issue of young people's fractured transitions into the labour market. Many scholars and policy-makers believe that changes in the education system and labour market over recent decades have created a complex world for young people; and that this can partly be addressed by enhanced career education while individuals are at school. However, the literature lacks in-depth quantitative analysis making use of longitudinal data. This paper draws on the British Cohort Study 1970 to investigate the link between career talks by external speakers and employment outcomes, and finds some evidence that young people who participated in more career talks at age 14-16 enjoyed a wage premium 10 years later at age 26. The correlation is statistically significant on average across all students who receive talks at age 14-15; but remains the case for 15-16 year olds only if they also described the talks as very helpful.

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This chapter explores the evidence surrounding Schleicher's contention that episodes of employer engagement can impact on the academic motivation of teenagers by using the unique dataset on student attitudes and academic proficiency: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) own Programme International Student Attainment (PISA). It looks at the impact of both commonplace careers guidance activities and engagement with employers to further investigate the character of such relationships. The chapter seeks to build on the existing literature by specifically investigating hypotheses, exploring whether relationships can be drawn between participation in what the OECD describes as career development activities and both more positive attitudes towards education and improved academic achievement. It investigates whether participation in selected career development activities is associated with higher PISA mathematics scores. Work experience and other forms of employer engagement demonstrate to young people the links between what they do in the classroom and how those skills ultimately will be used in the labour market.

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 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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No generation of young people has entered the world of work with more qualifications and time in education. But it can still be a struggle to compete for employment opportunities. How can transition skills events, such as mock interviews and CV workshops, help address this? Transition skills events are designed to improve young people's understanding of how the labour market works, whilst developing job seeking skills (i.e. how to manage application processes and to perform well in interviews) and personal resilience. This paper reviews the effectiveness of these employer-led transition skills events. The findings provide evidence for schools and colleges to support the delivery of these events and activities. The different evidence sources used in this review provide insights into best practice when it comes to designing and delivering events to get the best results for young people.

Edited excerpts from publication.

The evidence review for this report is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 129.867. Show less

This report explores the hypothesis that engaging with the world of work through school-mediated employer engagement activities can enhance academic attainment by influencing and enhancing young people's positive attitudes towards education, career choices and themselves. Such engagement can potentially influence attainment over different time frames. Our trial specifically tested the potential to impact attainment over the short-term, looking at how extra career engagement in the months leading up to exams could impact the motivation to revise. The results also shed light on longer-term channels for impact, such as more positive attitudes towards education and shaping education pathway choices.

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This study aims to harness insights from UK longitudinal studies to help careers professionals and other school teaching staff to identify and prioritise pupils who require greater levels of careers provision as they approach key decision making points. Comprised of a questionnaire and scoring system, the toolkit has been designed to be comprehensive - relevant to students at all attainment levels - by making use of robust UK longitudinal data which compares students of similar characteristics (for example, socio-economic background, geographical area, attainment levels) to identify which factors which make a difference to economic outcomes (earnings and employment) in later life. Importantly, the study identifies attitudes and experiences (we term them 'indicators') which schools can influence in order to better prepare their young people for adult working life. The approach adopted is primarily designed to allow schools to identify students requiring greater levels of support to help them become well prepared.

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This report explores the findings from a new survey conducted by YouGov which asked 824 secondary school teachers what happens to children and young people in terms of their academic achievement after taking part in activities with local employers, for example work experience, careers sessions or enterprise activities. Many teachers are well placed to offer an informed professional opinion on whether employer engagement impacts on pupil achievement, why and how it might do so, when and where it is optimally designed for maximum impact and who (among pupils) is best placed to benefit. The report addresses three specific themes: (1) Do employer engagement activities have an impact on the academic achievement of pupils? (2) Which activities have the greatest impacts, and on which type of pupil? (3) Why, according to teachers, do these activities have an impact?

Key findings include: (1) 9 out of 10 secondary school teachers (93 per cent) say that work experience and employer related activities can help students to do better in exams; (2) Teachers also said that one in five pupils (20 per cent) in a typical year group today have positively benefitted from these activities in school; (3) Successful work experience placements are believed to have the greatest impact on improving academic attainment, with over a quarter of teachers ranking it as their first choice. This is followed closely by employer-led sessions such as career events with employee volunteers (4) While the sentiment was shared across the state and independent sector, the majority of teachers believed that employer engagement in the most disadvantaged schools had the highest impact; and (5) Over half of teachers felt academic achievement can be improved by helping students understand the relevance of education to employment, as well as exposing students to new role models through employer engagement.

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