Looking Back, Moving On: The Views of Young Britons (aged 19-24) on Their Teenage Experiences of School-Mediated Employer Engagement and Correlations with Subsequent Labour Market Outcomes James Dawkins Educational Research Analyst, Education and Employers Taskforce

Context of Survey Survey designed to identify extent to which young people engage and perceive four key types of employer engagement activity useful in: deciding on a career, getting a job and getting in to HE Sample large enough to segment by school type, age, gender and geographical location Key questions addressed in presentation: Is there variation across school types and age groups in terms of the usefulness of WEX and careers advice?

Outline Methodology Participation rates by school type & age Perceived impacts across 3 outcome areas segmented by age, school type and level of qualification Final thoughts

Methodology Survey administered by YouGov Polling (pro-bono) Sample size: 987 people Location: Great Britain Age: Fieldwork: February, 2011 Statistical analysis via SPSS 16.0 Testing at 10% significance level

Activity Participation Rates Work Experience Careers advice from employers Enterprise Activity Business Mentoring Yes85%45%30%19% No15%55%70%81% Total987 Q. Did you do/receive… between 14 and 19?

Activity participation rates by school type Work Experience 14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form N Yes90.0% 86.1% 84.8% 649 No10.0% 13.9% 15.2% 82 N P-Value School type attended between * Work experience participation rates School type attended between * Percentage receiving employer careers advice Careers Advice 14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form N Yes43.8% 48.4% 57.0% 336 No56.2% 51.6% 43.0% 395 N P-Value 0.076

Activity participation rates by school type Enterprise Activity Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth form with sixth form with sixth form Yes 27.2% 38.5% 37.5% 221 No 72.8% 61.5% 62.5% 510 N P-Value School type attended between * Enterprise activity participation rate School type attended between * Business mentoring participation rate Mentoring 14-19Non-Selective Grammar Independent N Yes 16.3% 15.7% 15.0% 117 No83.7% 84.3% 85.0% 613 N P-Value 0.955

Perceived impacts of activities School type attended between * Work Experience participation rate 14-19* deciding on a Job getting a job getting into HE Non-selective 54% (16%) 27% (9%) 25% (6%) Grammar 59% (19%) 31% (10%) 28% (11%) Independent 81% (36%) 47% (15%) 42% (13%) P-Value (Including a sixth form or college) School type attended between * Percentage receiving careers advice 14-19* deciding on a Job getting a job getting into HE Non-selective 58% (10%) 39% (7%) 37% (10%) Grammar 62% (12%) 38% (7%) 46% (7%) Independent 81% (28%) 56% (13%) 37% (17%) P-Value (Including a sixth form or college)

Age Pupil age and the usefulness of work experience deciding on career getting a jobgetting into HEN Age WE wasUsefulUsefulUseful undertaken 14 to 1650% (13%)25% (7%)19% (4%) to 1974% (29%)48% (21%)47% (18%) Did it at both ages76% (31%)47% (20%)51% (24%)81-96 P-Value Pupil age and the usefulness of careers advice deciding on career getting a jobgetting into HEN Age CA wasUsefulUsefulUseful undertaken 14 to 1654% (9%)40% (8%)30% (8%) to 1970% (16%)53% (15%)53% (16%) Did it at both ages69% (17%)39% (10%)43% (9%) P-Value

Level of qualifications Former pupils asked “How useful was work experience in…: Highest qual leveldeciding on careergetting a jobgetting into HEN 0100% (0% a lot)100% (0%)0% (0%) (29%)50% (42%)10% (10%) % (7%)38% (18%)15% (6%) % (20%)28% (9%)28% (9%) % (15%)30% (9%)31% (8%) % (13%)27% (5%)14% (2%) P-Value Former pupils asked “How useful was careers advice in...” Highest qual leveldeciding on careergetting a jobgetting into HEN 0100% (0% a lot)100% (0%)0% (0%)3 1 81% (31%)81% (50%)53% (47%) % (18%)59% (15%)52% (13%) % (16%)48% (13%)41% (8%) % (10%)39% (6%)42% (13%) % (9%)32% (2%)43% (8%) P-Value

NEETs Some schools and colleges arrange for their students (aged between 14 and 19) to take part in activities which involve employers or local business people providing things like work experience, mentoring, enterprise activity, careers advice, CV or interview practice. On how many different occasions do you remember such employer involvement in your education? or more Which of the following BEST applies to you? NEETs26.1%23.4%16.6%15.6%4.3% Non-NEET73.9%76.6%83.4%84.4%95.7% Weighted Base Correlation between NEET status at and number of employer engagement activities undertaken whilst in education (aged 14-19) Kendall’s Tau C P value = 0.001

Future perceptions and employer engagement activity intensity Some schools and colleges arrange for their students (aged between 14 and 19) to take part in activities which involve employers or local business people providing things like work experience, mentoring, enterprise activity, careers advice, CV or interview practice. On how many different occasions do you remember such employer involvement in your education? or more Thinking about the sort of job you’d like to be doing in 5 to 10 years time, how useful do you think what you are doing now is as a way of achieving this? Very Useful 35.7%38.0%40.7%45.8%54.4% Useful 31.6%32.5%37.2%25.4%30.9% Not that Useful 15.8%13.3%10.3%11.9%7.4% Not at all Useful 16.9%16.2%11.7%16.9%7.4% Weighted Base Correlation between number of employer engagement activities undertaken whilst in education (aged 14-19) and perceptions as a young adult (aged 19-24) of usefulness of current activity to future career aspirations. Kendall’s Tau C P Value = 0.002

Wage Premiums I 176 report annual salaries bounded between £10k and £30k in £1k ranges Predominantly with L3 as highest qualification Correlating against number of employer engagement activities recalled Controlling for effects of gender, age, ethnicity, school type, regional area and highest level of qualification attained

Wage Premiums II Positive correlations exist (94.5% certain not due to chance, p = 0.055) (as number of emp eng act increase so do wages, were 95% sure that this is not due to chance) Each additional employer engagement activity is linked on average with an extra £750 (4%) increase in annual salary Confirmed by DfE analysts

What is happening? Textual analysis of written comments to a general question on value (if any) of employer engagement activity, suggests that human capital accumulation rarely occurs. Rather, interventions serve to increase social capital resource (access to non-redundant, trusted information) which serves to change attitudes, ambitions, self-perceptions (cultural capital).

James Dawkins Educational Research Analyst, Education and Employers Taskforce