Opinion11th March 2025

Career-limiting stereotypes start young. We must start younger

Erika Nabeshima

Marking Careers Week and International Women’s Day, here’s how Ark is helping girls choose pathways still dominated by men.

This article was written by Erika Nabeshima, Primary Careers Lead, and originally published in Schools Week on Tuesday 4 March 2025.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” As a child, the world should be your oyster. But by the age of just five, many will have already decided that certain jobs are not for them or are out of their reach because of their gender.

As they get older, gendered assumptions become more ingrained and the ‘aspiration gap’ widens. This has a marked impact on the choices they make and their career prospects later in life.

Consider these stark facts:

Gender stereotypes have stopped nearly half of girls aged 11 to 18 from doing something they want to do.

The gender pay gap begins at age 18, from the moment women take their first step on the career ladder – lasting until they retire.

Women account for only 26 per cent of the STEM workforce, 19 per cent of those working in tech (up by just 5 per cent since 2009) and 12 per cent of those in engineering roles.

At Ark, we don’t think that’s good enough. We believe that everyone regardless of gender should be encouraged to pursue a career that genuinely excites them.

Primary-level careers education isn’t currently compulsory. However, with social mobility at its lowest rate in a generation, we think it’s more important than ever that it starts as early as possible.

This is why our Primary Careers programme, which began in 2022, starts careers education from age four, building ambition in our pupils from their first days at primary school.

The programme has three aims: to broaden horizons, to raise aspirations and to challenge stereotypes.

To provide aspirational pathways into employment for as many of our students as possible, we need to inspire and inform primary school children about the world of work and the whole spectrum of jobs out there.

We need ambitious and inspirational programmes in place to inform, educate and encourage every child to follow their dreams, whatever they may be.

So each of our primary schools has a designated careers lead who ensures that careers education is built into the curriculum as part of everyday school life.

Knowledge maps for subjects set out the jobs linked to that area of study. For example, pupils learning about the Romans will see jobs associated with that topic, such as archaeologist or museum curator.

We also have ‘wow moments’, like our careers days. This is where we connect our students with as wide a range of employers as possible in one day. This way, they can learn more about the world of work, hear about jobs they wouldn’t otherwise be aware of, and see that anything and everything is possible.

Just this month, pupils had sessions with people from a range of different occupations including engineers, scientists and software designers. They’ve met representatives from employers like the civil service, Boden, the Metropolitan police, British Airways, MACE construction and National Rail.

Everything we do at Ark is based on evidence and the research shows that this approach works.

The recent Start Small Dream Big pilot gave 89,000 children from across over 400 schools nationwide the chance to interact with employers.

The trial was designed to increase primary-aged children’s awareness of the world of work and delivered a notable shift in career aspirations, particularly among girls.

It saw a 30-per cent increase in girls’ interest in careers in business and finance, with notable rises in sport and fitness (15 per cent), digital (14 per cent), law (13 per cent), and construction and building (8 percent).

Meanwhile, 87 per cent of teachers reported fewer pupils limiting their career aspirations due to gender stereotypes and 83 per cent said their pupils had increased confidence about having equal access to jobs and careers.

It’s clear that if we want to reverse gender stereotypes and raise aspirations in our next generation, we need to start when they are young.

We need ambitious and inspirational programmes in place to inform, educate and encourage every child to follow their dreams whatever they may be.

As one Ark primary school pupil recently said, “I didn’t know looking up at the stars could be a job”.