What the Project is
Education and Employers received a grant of £50,000 in the 2016/17 Edge Grant Fund to support development of Primary Futures, a programme designed to increase schools’ engagement with employee volunteers to raise aspirations, broaden horizons and enable children to link their learning to the world of work.
Primary Futures uses online technology to make it quick and easy for primary schools to connect and engage with employee volunteers from all sectors and levels. Schools can access a substantial database of diverse volunteers who will visit schools and engage pupils in a range of activities designed to raise awareness of the variety of jobs available, tackle stereotypes and to help children understand the links between school subjects and the world of work.
Over the course of this project, Primary Futures enabled over 50,000 children and over 1,300 teachers to participate in over 970 activities with volunteers. The project also supported the recruitment of an additional 12,000 volunteers from a range of employers available for all schools to access.
Primary Futures brings employees into schools where they can talk to children about their job, their career route and how subjects they studied at school help with their work. Particularly popular are the “What’s my line?” events where children have an opportunity to question a guest panel of volunteers to try and guess their job. Seeing real people from a range of occupations helps breakdown gender and sector stereotypes and raises awareness of potential career paths from an early age.
Primary Futures also offers thematic campaigns directed at particular issues such as Women in Science or arts and creative careers – areas not easily recognised by the primary age group and most recently have developed an online interactive offer meaning schools can continue to connect children to volunteers whether they are in the classroom or learning from home..
Primary Futures is supported by NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers).
Starting Early
Based on new in-depth research, insights and surveys, Starting Early: Building the foundations for success makes the case for career-related learning in primary schools. This report provides the evidence behind a low-cost approach that is underexploited in addressing the challenges of ingrained stereotypical views and narrow aspirations of primary aged pupils – and is especially vital during the post-Covid ‘recovery curriculum’ period.
Primary children, who are among those who have missed the biggest proportion of their schooling during the pandemic, can be motivated and inspired through live, interactive virtual events where they meet and question a diverse range of working people across the UK from electrical engineers to Antarctic explorers.
Starting Early shows that the potential of career-related learning in primary schools is far greater than today’s practice. We can give children access to role models from the world of work and empower teachers to connect directly with employer volunteers to organise high-quality career-related learning. These activities reduce stereotypes, enhance confidence, foster a positive attitude towards school, and improve attainment.
Findings from a national pilot and a survey of 10,000 children shows that the Primary Futures programme results in improved motivation for maths, science and English and increases children’s future aspirations and desire to learn. The biggest impact has been on children from disadvantaged backgrounds who often don’t get access to a diversity of role models. This has been especially the case during lockdown.
Quotes
William Tyndale Primary School“The children were really engaged - they learnt about jobs they had never heard of before. The children were motivated and enjoyed listening and talking with professionals.”
An eight-year-old primary school student“what I loved about this day was that we got to explore different jobs that are in the world that we didn’t know about. This experience has allowed me to keep an open mind about my future job.”
Brad Wilson, PC, Northamptonshire Police“It was a pleasure to be involved in such a great initiative, which is designed to open young minds to the career opportunities that lay ahead of them in the future. It was very pleasing to see so many volunteers from all areas of community joining in with this initiative and I know the young learners all thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was also pleasing to see no stereo typing from the young learners and such enthusiasm to try and guess are roles based only on what they could see and on our yes \ no answers”
Resources
Education and Employers have worked with schools across the country to refine their virtual interactive sessions. They have developed comprehensive tech guides, info on safeguarding and template activities – find out more.
You can also access pre-recorded activities that can be easily utilised to ensure children remain connected to the outside world. The first of these, a classroom chat with NHS volunteers can be accessed here.
Find out more
To find out more about this project visit the Primary Futures website or contact Katy Hampshire, Director of Operations and Programmes on katy.hampshire@educationandemployers.org