Education & Employers Research Digest
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Education and Employers
Research Digest - February 2025
Full summaries of all publications contained in the Digest are available by clicking the link embedded titles.
We are always looking to promote the work of others in related fields. To share your publications, conferences, events, or blog posts with our network please email: research@educationandemployers.org
In case you haven’t seen it, our free, searchable online library of research from around the world is available here: Research Library
PUBLICATIONS
New Report by Education and Employers Charity
Drawing the future: Exploring the career aspirations of children in Northern Ireland
Chris Percy, Deirdre Hughes OBE, & Nick Chambers
This first study to examine primary school children's career aspirations in Northern Ireland considers how aspirations are shaped by gender, location and socio-economic background and also compares the survey findings with current and projected labour market demands. This report has investigated who and what is influencing children’s choice and provided an opportunity to learn from what is being done successfully in other countries to broaden children’s horizons and raise their aspirations.
Access to internships for graduates
Erica Holt-White & Carl Cullinane
In the absence of national statistics, this research brief provides a vital update
to the policy landscape on internships in the UK through surveys of both recent graduates and employers, conducted in December 2024.
Pathways, Engagement and Transitions: Young people's insights on navigating post-school pathways
The Smith Family
This report builds on the findings of the previous three reports and focuses on the stories of six young people who were in Year 12 in 2020 and participated in three longitudinal interviews. The rich, detailed perspectives they generously shared offer a unique understanding of their diverse experiences, revealing both their strengths and the challenges they faced.
Teenage career uncertainty: why it matters and how to reduce it
OECD
Multinational analysis shows that it is young people who are the lowest academic performers who are most likely uncertain. The good news is that programmes of career development can often be expected to reduce levels of career uncertainty, but PISA 2022 shows too few students are engaging in the many effective interventions. This Policy Brief draws on evidence from the OECD Career Readiness project to explore:
- What is career certainty and uncertainty?
- How does career certainty/uncertainty relate to employment outcomes?
- How common is career uncertainty among students and what does PISA tell us about the students who are most likely to express uncertain career plans?
- How can guidance systems respond to career uncertainty?
Engendering Access to STEM Education and Careers in South Asia
Shobhana Sosale, Graham Mark Harrison, Namrata Tognatta, Shiro Nakata, & Priyal Mukesh Gala
This report aims to improve the understanding of the barriers to, and ultimately address, gender segregation in access to and participation in STEM in South Asia. To that end, it applies a hybrid multidimensional framework to help explain the motivations for access to STEM education. This framework is used to assess how South Asian countries fare on access to STEM education, identify gaps, and offer recommendations for how access challenges can be addressed. Of note are the multidimensional elements and influencers.
Voluntary work in the community
OECD
This paper summarises conclusions from studies of national longitudinal datasets on how teenage volunteering relates to employment outcomes in adulthood. It also explores why positive benefits can be expected in light of theories of human, social and cultural capital accumulation. It draws on the OECD PISA study to present data on patterns of student volunteering and finally provides advice for schools and education jurisdictions on how benefits can be optimised for students.
COMMENTS
Hengameh Karimi
Dom Conroy, Paul Joseph-Richard, & Timos Almpanis
EVENT
We believe no child should be constrained by stereotypes or the expectations of others. We know that if young people hear firsthand about the world of work, they work harder, get better grades and are more likely to break down barriers.
They should have the chance to start as early as possible, and that is why we launched the national I am #InspiringTheFuture campaign.
Any views expressed in the publications featured in this newsletter are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Education and Employers.
