Primary education

Introduction

This notebook (below) provides resources for "making the case" for careers education in primary education, referring to both challenges that it can tackle and evidence that interventions produce positive outcomes.

Career learning in primary education is relatively less mature than secondary education. However, the interest in starting young people to think about the world of careers at an early age is many decades old. Over the last few years, UK researchers have started to implement and evaluate programmes in schools more systematically, with the aims of starting to introduce young people to the idea of ‘careers’ from an early age.

Research has shown that limiting beliefs and stereotyping can be established at formative ages, particularly amongst disadvantaged or under-represented groups. Therefore, the aims of such interventions are often to create the foundational behaviors that mean youngsters will look wider when thinking about their careers in the years that follow.  

The case for careers

The academic literature and many other publications have cited the importance of careers interventions at primary age. Amongst the common reasons that investment in careers education is important include:

• There is a body of international evidence for strong relationships between skills developed in early childhood and later life outcomes (Schoon et al, 2015)

• Stereotypical and limiting views, usually related to gender, are attributed to learning in the first 5-6 years of life. (e.g. Bian et al, 2017)

• Increased career aspirations amongst primary school children can weaken the link between family poverty and externalising factors (Flouri and Panourgia, 2012)

• Parental influences on a child’s career choices, despite good intent, can be biased and limiting (e.g. Barnes et al, 2020)

• There is an advantage of starting early, to build the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in life (e.g. Magnusson 2001)

• Early careers learning provides the ability to link with social and emotional learning, to derive beneficial synergies (e.g. Howard and Ferrari, 2023)

• In England, there are still considerable gaps in provision in developing a mature capability across schools with only 1 in 10 having a designated leader and 2 in 3 not targeting particular groups  (Davenport and Padwick. 2022)

• Interest in skills that are in demand for society, particularly STEM, are most effectively initiated in earlier years (e.g. DeWitt, 2015; Caspi et al, 2023).

There are a range of literature reviews and studies that demonstrate the positive impact of careers education, for example:

• An international literature review shows that many benefits are gained from primary-level career learning, though the literature is not as well established as secondary education. There are also some enabling practices within schools, such as leadership, that support the quality of the support that is delivered (Kashefpakdel, E., Rehill, J., and Hughes, D., 2018)

• An excellent, comprehensive review and a national study was written by Percy et al (2021) showing international impacts of early years and primary careers education that include a) increased engagement in learning, b) social mobility enhancement and c) consideration of broader career options. 

• A major longitudinal study in Derbyshire found a series of very positive impacts on students by way of their curiosity, engagement, confidence and learning. which can be achieved from a career learning programme (Hughes, D and Hughes, R., 2022)

• Interest can be increased in STEM education and careers, particularly amongst girls (McMaster et al, 2023) 

• Education programmes at primary age can concurrently raise aspirations and improve educational progress (Gordard et al, 2017).