Resources to Support Career-Related Learning in Primary Schools

Introduction

Whilst not mandatory in primary schools, introducing primary school children to the world of work can help to bring learning alive by sparking their curiosity and creating those lightbulb moments! 

Embedding careers information into the curriculum and giving pupils the chance to learn about different jobs and employability skills will help them to better understand the world of work, what they are interested in and what skills they have, whilst broadening their horizons and challenging stereotypes.

Research shows that as children grow up, their focus and aspirations can narrow.  A DfE-funded pilot run by the Careers and Enterprise Company – Start Small, Dream Big – found that from the age of 4, children start to make limiting decisions about who they can be when they grow up. By age 5 and 6, children are beginning to narrow their choices based on their gender, and by age 10 many young people have already made career-limiting decisions, which are fixed by the time they are 14.

Their thoughts on the jobs they might do are influenced by the jobs their family members do, jobs the see on TV, local businesses or societal expectations and stereotypes.  By embedding information on what it means to have a job and earn money, you are helping to show children the bigger picture in terms of the world of work, you are not asking them to choose their future career right now.  It is about opening up the wide range of possibilities in front of them and positively challenging things like who can and can't do a certain job and which job is better than another. 

Career-related learning can help to join up what they are learning in school to how this relates to life and work.  This might be learning skills such as teamwork and communication or developing a better understanding of money, maybe linked to wages and household bills. 

There is already a wealth of good practice taking place in schools across the county.  It may be that your school hasn't thought about these activities in terms of pulling them together as part of a careers programme.  There is no requirement for primary school to have a careers lead or a careers programme but it might be beneficial to have a more planned approach to career-related learning across the school.

This page is intended to bring together a range of resources in one place which you can utilise as and when required.  We hope to keep this page up to date with case studies of good practice taking place in Lancashire so schools can share what they do and learn from each other.  If your school has any examples they want to share – maybe you have held an enterprise week or visited a business in your local area, let us know, we'd love to include the great work you are doing!

 

What could career-related activities look like in your school?

School-based activities

  • Run a mini-enterprise week
  • Build career-related learning into the curriculum, such as exploring wages in maths or looking at the jobs people do in the books the children are reading
  • Research a job of the week linked to different part of the curriculum:
    • If you are studying the weather, look at what jobs there are in the Met Office, what jobs area affected by the weather, such as landscape gardening or farming
    • If you are studying the Roman Empire, what jobs did people do back them and what do they look like today – if those jobs even exist? If they don't exist, why not?
    • If you are studying the environment, explore jobs in the green economy and low carbon sector – a key growth sector for Lancashire! How are business becoming more sustainable?
  • Ask the children to think about the different jobs in school and ask them to write a job description for one of them – what skills are needed to do that job, would they need a qualification for this job, research what a typical salary for that job is
    • This might be developed into children applying for one of the jobs and being interviewed for it!
  • Do an art activity where the children draw their future career – is there a uniform, would they need any equipment, would they work in a specific type of building? How would they find this information out?
  • Build on awareness days/events such as volunteering week, International Women's Day and International Men's Day, World Book Day, Science and Engineering Week

Visitor-based activities

  • Invite parents in to talk about their jobs – you could run this like a 20 questions type activity so the children can ask them questions to work out what their job is
  • Invite your alumni back into school to talk to the pupils about their education and career journey
  • Invite employers and apprentices into school to talk about their career journey. Support can be sourced through local employers, business networks and apprenticeship providers

 

External activities

  • Community engagement - visit businesses are in your local area or invite them into school, go on trips to different employers, invite people from the local community to come in and speak to the pupils
  • Have a tour of your local college – they have a wide range of industry-standard facilities, from 3D printers and e-Sport equipment to animal grooming salons and hospital ward set ups

 

Impact of career-related learning

  • Broaden and raise aspirations by showing children the range of opportunities available to them
  • Improved outcomes by enhancing their knowledge of careers
  • Developing life skills such as communication and team work and understanding how this relates to having a job
  • Promote inclusivity by challenging stereotypes and showing children how diverse the workplace can be

 

Resource directory

There are limitless resources available for primary schools to access on career-related learning and you will probably be aware of some of these already.  We're hoping that by having these in one place, you will be able to easily access these as and when you need to.

Examples of good practice

A national example of good practice can be seen at Welton Primary School in Somerset - Welton Primary School.  The school embraces a range of career-related activities such as:

  • Children drawing their future
  • Embedding careers into day to day teaching and learning
  • Having visitors in school including employers, parents and members of the local community
  • Delivering economic education including discussing salaries and why people work

Research

A lot of research has been done on career-related learning in primary school.  If you wanted to find out more about this, some research and project examples are set out below.

Northumbria University research

The research from Northumbria University shows that children's aspirations narrow as they get older.  They absorb information about jobs and careers from lots of sources and from as young as five, children have ingrained stereotypical views of the jobs people can do, based on their gender, ethnicity and social background.  These views can limit their aspirations.

Research shows that high quality career-related learning can enhance children's confidence, foster a positive attitude towards work and improve attainment.  Lots of career-related activities already take place – trips to employers, challenging stereotypes, having parents in to talk about their jobs, linking careers into lessons and holding a careers week – but some schools don't do any career-related leaning. 

The research shows the benefits of developing career-related learning in your school.

North East Ambition Career Benchmarks: Primary Pilot

This pilot - Career Benchmarks: Primary Pilot - North East Ambition – looks at how the Gatsby Benchmarks, which are used to support the development and implementation of high quality careers programmes in secondary schools and colleges, can be adapted for use in primary schools.

 

CDI Career Development Framework – handbook for primary schools

This Framework Handbook clarifies the skills, knowledge and attitudes individuals need to have a positive career.  The framework sets out six key areas of learning, including exploring possibilities, creating opportunities and seeing the big picture.