May 16, 2024
"More is more”: the impact of careers education on later outcomes
Does school-based careers education, advice, information and guidance (CEAIG) have any influence on later life outcomes? A body of research has shown that careers education and activities can play an important role in helping young people to prepare for and navigate transitions into the world of work. It has also shown that the quality and quantity of provision can vary considerably, with those who are most socially disadvantaged experiencing the least and lowest quality provision. However, until now, the impact of careers education on later life outcomes has remained unclear.
A new paper written by Dr Julie Moote and colleagues seeks to find out what relationship there is between young people’s perceptions of the quality and quantity of school-based careers activities and education experienced at the age of 14–16 and their outcomes several years later, when they are 21–22. Findings are discussed in the light of recent legislation relating to careers support in England, which highlights how important it is to ensure that the needs of all young people transitioning into the workforce and adulthood are met.
Summary
Dr Moote and her colleagues conducted a large-scale postal survey of young people in England by obtaining a sample of young people born 1 September 1998 and 31 August 1999 who were registered on the Open Electoral Roll. The responses of 7,635 young people were included in the study. The questionnaire explored young people’s experiences, aspirations, expectations and influences, their general views on science and careers, extra-curricular activities, qualifications, attainment and socio-demographic factors. It also reported on measures of job satisfaction, income, and perspectives and confidence relating to future careers and work. The paper focuses on data that specifically relates to careers provision, which sought to establish young people’s perspectives on the careers education that they received at school and how helpful they found it.
The analysis showed that experiencing a greater number of careers advice and guidance activities at school significantly predicted more positive future prospects. The more activities that an individual reported taking part in, and the more activities they reported as being helpful, the more likely they were to report feeling confident and experiencing low levels of concern when thinking about their future employment or training. Young adults who recalled having a greater amount of careers guidance at school felt more confident about their future work prospects, felt better prepared for life and experienced greater life satisfaction, and those who were in employment felt happier and more satisfied with their jobs.
To contextualise this, Dr Moote found that the odds of young people reporting more positive future prospects were 85% higher if they recalled eight careers activities at age 14–16, compared to someone who reported zero. Good careers provision at school also predicted significantly increased odds of young people reporting being in education, training or work at the age of 21/22. School type also emerged as a significant predictor in feeling prepared for life, with independent school pupils having twice the odds of reporting preparedness compared to state comprehensive pupils, and 1.47 times higher odds than grammar school pupils.
Implications
“We are careful here not to overstate the implications of the findings. However, while we cannot claim causality of the results… this work documents the long-term value and potential positive influence of these CEAIG activities on outcomes reported later in life… These results show that the more we do for young people (i.e. the more supportive development activities we support/encourage them to participant in) and the higher the quality of the activities we provide for them is (i.e. the more helpful they report finding the activities), the stronger the relationships might be to the adult outcomes.”
Implications for schools
Dr Moote advises all schools to consider the Gatsby Benchmarks when developing an authentic, contextualised and personalised careers programme. Defined in a detailed report, these eight benchmarks outline best practice in careers education and scaffold the structure of provision within schools. They have really helped in the move towards standardisation of careers provision and in keeping individual settings more accountable.
Start early. The younger we begin to talk to children about the different kinds of jobs available to them, the better. Primary teachers might consider using The LOUD! Network’s free resources. They contain videos and follow up activities which relate curriculum based content to specific careers.
Monitor and measure. The majority of careers education is offered on a self-referral system. This could potentially disadvantage those that might benefit from it the most, as it relies on students to understand the kind of support that they need, actively seek it and opt-in to do it. Schools should monitor and measure uptake, notice patterns and evaluate the strategies that are being used in order to check that careers programmes and activities are reaching the widest possible number of students. Reflect on the structure used within your setting and, if you use a self-referral system, evaluate whether it is working and what implications it has.
Implications for parents
Have dinnertime discussions. Make time to talk about different careers and potential future prospects, and make conversations about science part of your everyday life. Dinnertime chats are known to have a significant positive impact on how children feel about themselves and their academic capabilities.
Make the most of your contacts. Work experience is often organised by parents. This is brilliant in families with strong professional relationships and contacts, but far more challenging for those with less access. Make the most of your strengths and tap into your support network for help if you need it.
Be open to your children’s opinions and interests, and be curious about the things that fascinate them. It’s important to put our own views and feelings aside when talking about careers with our children. To help them have a fulfilling career, we need to understand what they want and what would be the best option for them, rather than projecting our own motivations onto them.
In relation to STEM, help children understand that science is transferable and is for everyone. A STEM qualification can open many doors and provide many opportunities. People with STEM qualifications are less likely to be employed below their skill level and there is a real need for skilled people in the STEM sphere.
Check out Talking Futures. This online resource is designed to help parents have informed and constructive conversations with children about the different training and education pathways available to them.
Dr Julie Moote
Freelance research and evaluation consultant.
Dr Julie Moote started out as a science teacher, but has been an academic researcher for a decade and is now a freelance research and evaluation consultant. Her most significant project has been the ASPIRES investigation. ASPIRES was a huge longitudinal study which followed a cohort of students over a 13 year period – from primary school leavers, through to university graduates and young people transitioning into the world of work – investigating how their aspirations for education, and then work, in STEM-related disciplines formed and developed over time. The findings of this project have been reported to Parliament and are informing government policies on how to encourage more young people to get into STEM careers. Broadening the pursuit of STEM is one of Julie’s main passions – particularly making STEM a safer and more inclusive space for people of all backgrounds and characteristics. And she is also very interested in how inquiry-based learning programmes can help to inspire budding scientists.
Dr Julie Moote
Freelance research and evaluation consultant.
Scroll our research gallery
Jul 14, 2025
Do teens with mental health conditions use social media differently than their peers?
As Luisa Fassi, our new Researcher of the Month, comments, "The link between social media use and youth mental health is hotly debated, but hardly any studies look at young people already struggling with clinical-level mental health symptoms". In fact, Luisa's large systematic review and meta-analysis found that only 11% of papers published on the topic since 2007 focused on young people with clinical conditions. It also showed that the data used to evidence mental health conditions in these existing studies is not always strong or especially robust. Many report links between social media and mental health on the basis of short self-report questionnaires, where young people are asked about symptoms. Similarly, very few papers differentiate between different mental health conditions, or examine different symptoms or conditions (such as anxiety, ADHD or eating disorders) in isolation. To address this research gap, Luisa and colleagues have recently published a fascinating and nuanced paper. It analyses both quantitative and qualitative data from a nationally representative survey of 3,340 teens in the UK aged between 11 and 19 years old, which was conducted by NHS Digital in 2017. Rather than gathering mental health data from self-report questionnaires, the young people in the survey underwent a full clinical screening, which included interviews with the young people, their parents and teachers. Information about social media use came from questionnaires completed by participants. They were not asked about specific platforms. Luisa used this data to gather novel insights into how social media and mental health are related in teens who both meet and do not meet diagnostic criteria for a wide range of mental health conditions. The study does not establish any causal links, but it does reveals a range of differences between young people with and without mental health conditions when it comes to social media.
Jun 17, 2025
Navigating the feed: younger adolescents' reflections on algorithmically curated social media
Our latest researcher of the month, Roxana Pomplun, has investigated the interactions, experiences and perceptions of younger adolescents, aged 11, 12, and 13, with algorithmically curated platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Spotlight on Snapchat and Reels on Instagram. These kinds of platforms use algorithms to personalise and tailor feeds, harnessing user data to suggest content that the individual is most likely to be interested in and engage with. As such, young people have little control over what they are seeing in their feeds. Tech companies are not yet required to be transparent about the data that they are collecting, but it tends to include demographic information such as age, gender or location, along with use patterns. Whilst these sites dominate the digital lives of tweens and teens, until now they have received little dedicated research attention, particularly in relation to younger users, with most existing studies focusing on older teens. Whilst we know that most social media platforms have age limits of 13, we also know that many younger children are active users, particularly of algorithmically curated platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Given that early adolescence is a life phase marked by critical neurological development, identity development and heightened susceptibility to mental health issues, deepening our understanding of how younger adolescents engage with social media is vital. Roxana's qualitative research, where a group of young people eloquently explore their own experiences and perceptions, broadens our knowledge of social media use within an age group that appears increasingly aware of the digital influences shaping their online experiences, yet which is still in need of support to fully navigate these ecosystems.
May 15, 2025
Looking beyond smartphone bans
Over the last year or so, there has been a surge in public concern around smartphones and social media. Banning or restricting children’s access to smartphones and social media has grasped the attention of policy makers, schools and parents. A number of countries, including France, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, and regions of the US and Canada have introduced laws, policies or guidance for schools to ‘ban’ or heavily restrict the use of phones. In the UK, there are proposals to raise the age of ‘internet adulthood’ from 13 to 16, and to ban smartphones in schools. The third reading of a private members’ bill on this topic will be heard in parliament in July. Whilst these bans aim to protect children from harm, recent studies highlight a lack of evidence on their efficacy. Along with a team of international experts, our latest Researcher of the Month, Dr Victoria Goodyear, argues that, in isolation, banning smartphone and social media access fails to equip children for healthy use of technology. She suggests that there is a need to shift debates, policies and practices away from a sole focus on restricting smartphone and social media access, toward an emphasis on nurturing children’s digital skills for healthy technology use, and a rights-respecting approach which is underpinned by age-appropriate design and education.
Apr 22, 2025
Encouraging adventurous play in the preschool years
Tune into our podcast interview with April's researchers of the month here. As well as providing numerous opportunities for exploration, joy, and expression, outdoor and adventurous play - the type of play that allows children to take age-appropriate risks - is associated with a range of positive health behaviours and outcomes. Yes, we're talking about the kind of play that might leave us adults with our hearts in our mouths at times, as children start to disappear up a tree, or engage in a rough and tumble game of chase. But its benefits are wide-ranging and known impacts include increased levels of habitual physical activity alongside better mental health and positive mood. In 2019, Dr Hesketh was involved in the creation of physical activity guidelines in the UK, which explicitly note the importance of outdoor play for children in the preschool age group. We know quite a lot about the play habits of school-aged children, but until now, have had significantly less data on their younger counterparts. Our Researchers of the Month, Dr Kathryn Hesketh and Professor Helen Dodd set out to discover how much time preschool-aged children spend playing in a range of indoor and outdoor spaces, and how adventurously they are playing within them. In the first national survey of play in children of this age, they asked over 1000 parents of two to four year olds about their children’s play habits, finding that, on average, children aged two to four spend around four hours per day (outside of educational settings) playing. Just under 50% of this was spent playing outdoors. Their findings shed interesting light on some inequalities in play, even in the youngest age group, which may exacerbate existing inequalities in health.
Mar 17, 2025
Fostering a school culture against bullying: the KiVa Programme
Bullying is an extremely important public mental health risk. Around one in five primary school children report being bullied at least weekly. Children who are bullied are more likely to experience depression and anxiety, and are at heightened risk of mental health issues in adolescence and adulthood. Whilst schools in England and Wales are required to have anti-bullying policies, rates of bullying remain high. Bullying is preventable, but schools need more help to tackle it. Typically, school policies focus on how to handle bullying once it happens. However, evidence suggests that a comprehensive approach involving the entire school to prevent bullying, alongside clear strategies for addressing confirmed cases, is the most effective way to tackle the issue. KiVa is one such whole-school approach, developed in Finland by Professor Christina Samivalli. A large study in Finland which involved 28,000 primary school pupils found that adopting the KiVa programme in Finnish schools significantly reduced bullying and improved children's mental wellbeing. The programme has since been rolled out nationally by the Finnish government and ongoing use of KiVa in Finnish schools is associated with year-on-year incremental reductions in bullying. Along with colleagues, our researcher of the month, Professor Judy Hutchings OBE, has tested the effectiveness of the KiVa Programme in UK primary schools. The study involved over 11,000 children in Wales, Birmingham, Oxfordshire and Devon, and showed a 13% reduction in reported rates of bullying when compared with existing school approaches to tackle bullying.
Feb 12, 2025
When is the right age? Searching for age-appropriate ways to support children's online lives
Currently, children's and young people’s use of digital technology is rarely out of the news. Age limits are debated. Calls for stronger limits are made, and questions are raised regarding whether society should ban 'under-age' children from various aspects of the digital world. 13 years of age is often cited as a digital 'age of consent', though this varies in some countries. Commonly used age limits are largely arbitrary, based primarily on US legislation, rather than evidence. In a recent paper, our researcher of the month, Dr Kim Sylwander, and her co-author Professor Sonia Livingstone, consider age milestones and evaluate whether or not the evidence supports them. Are age limits the optimal way to regulate children’s digital experiences? Does it matter that they are widely contested and often poorly implemented? And are common boundaries even the “right” age, according to evidence from the field of children and digital media? Dr Sylwander persuasively argues that moving forward, a developmental approach can better support children’s rights.
Jan 14, 2025
Showing faith and trust in children nurtures integrity
A new study which explores the development of trust and integrity in children has found that expressing trust in young children encourages them to behave honesty. The research team, including our researcher of the month, Professor Li Zhao, studied whether children were less likely to cheat in a simple test of counting accuracy if the adult administering the test had previously conveyed trust in them. They found that children who were trusted cheated less than those who were not trusted. These findings provide novel evidence about the causal effect of trust on the development of children's honesty.
Dec 17, 2024
Intrinsic reward and word learning
From infancy onwards, humans display an innate motivation to acquire language and to communicate. We start acquiring words as babies and continue to do so throughout our lives. In fact, children are thought to learn over 3000 new words each year. However, relatively little work has focused on why we are motivated to learn words, particularly when it comes to adolescents. Adolescence is a period of great neurological change and sensitivity to learning. It's also marked by changes in reading behaviours. Whilst children become skilled readers between the ages of 10 and 18, this period is also associated with motivational changes in reading, with teens frequently showing a disinclination to read for pleasure. This change often coincides with the transition from primary to secondary school. Policy makers are keen to motivate adolescents to read for pleasure, arguing that it would improve not just literacy outcomes, but also result in substantial economic and societal benefit. Recent research has shown that adults find learning words to be intrinsically rewarding, and that this intrinsic reward facilitates the entrance of new words into long-term memory. In their latest paper, our researchers of the month, Professor Saloni Krishnan and Professor Pablo Ripollés, set out to establish whether the same is true for children and teens.
Nov 14, 2024
Delivering effective menstrual education
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Oct 17, 2024
How influential is social media on young people's mental health?
A significant body of evidence tells us that young people's mental health has decreased over time, and a potential link between social media use and this mental health decline has triggered wide interest and concern. Research into social media use and mental health is being conducted at a rapid pace but, so far, findings are far from conclusive. Our new Researcher of the Month, Dr Margarita Panayiotou, adds to this body of work. She led a team of researchers who recently published a study involving thousands of young people in the UK. It set out to explore the interplay between social media use and teens' mental health, wellbeing and social life, and found that when considering the complex combination of multiple factors, things such as a lack of family support are arguably more important for adolescent mental health than social media use.