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 DawkinsEducational Research Analyst, Education and Employers Taskforce

James.Dawkins@educationandemployers.org

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: 19-24

• 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

Yes 85% 45% 30% 19%No 15% 55% 70% 81%Total 987

Q. Did you do/receive… between 14 and 19?

Activity participation rates by school type

WorkExperience

14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form NYes 90.0% 86.1% 84.8% 649No 10.0% 13.9% 15.2% 82N 530 122 79 731

P-Value 0.229

School type attended between 14-19 * Work experience participation rates

School type attended between 14-19 * Percentage receiving employer careers advice

Careers Advice

14 – 19 Non-selective Grammar Independent with sixth Form with sixth Form with sixth Form NYes 43.8% 48.4% 57.0% 336No 56.2% 51.6% 43.0% 395N 530 122 79 731

P-Value 0.076

Activity participation rates by school type

EnterpriseActivity

14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent N with sixth form with sixth form with sixth formYes 27.2% 38.5% 37.5% 221No 72.8% 61.5% 62.5% 510N 529 122 80 731

P-Value 0.016

School type attended between 14-19 * Enterprise activity participation rate

School type attended between 14-19 * Business mentoring participation rate

Mentoring14-19 Non-Selective Grammar Independent NYes 16.3% 15.7% 15.0% 117No 83.7% 84.3% 85.0% 613N 529 121 80 730

P-Value 0.955

Perceived impacts of activitiesSchool type attended between 14-19 * Work Experience participation rate

14-19* deciding on a Job getting a job getting into HENon-selective 54% (16%) 27% (9%) 25% (6%) 441-470Grammar 59% (19%) 31% (10%) 28% (11%) 94-105Independent 81% (36%) 47% (15%) 42% (13%) 53-67

P-Value 0.000 0.036 0.032(Including a sixth form or college)

School type attended between 14-19 * Percentage receiving careers advice

14-19* deciding on a Job getting a job getting into HENon-selective 58% (10%) 39% (7%) 37% (10%) 223-232Grammar 62% (12%) 38% (7%) 46% (7%) 55-58Independent 81% (28%) 56% (13%) 37% (17%) 40-47

P-Value 0.003 0.389 0.122(Including a sixth form or college)

AgePupil age and the usefulness of work experience

deciding on career getting a job getting into HE NAge WE was Useful Useful Usefulundertaken14 to 16 50% (13%) 25% (7%) 19% (4%) 588-60916 to 19 74% (29%) 48% (21%) 47% (18%) 104-123Did it at both ages 76% (31%) 47% (20%) 51% (24%) 81-96P-Value 0.000 0.000 0.000

Pupil age and the usefulness of careers advice

deciding on career getting a job getting into HE NAge CA was Useful Useful Usefulundertaken14 to 16 54% (9%) 40% (8%) 30% (8%) 130-13616 to 19 70% (16%) 53% (15%) 53% (16%) 181-190Did it at both ages 69% (17%) 39% (10%) 43% (9%) 94-101P-Value 0.016 0.122 0.02

Level of qualificationsFormer pupils asked “How useful was work experience in…: Highest qual level deciding on career getting a job getting into HE N0 100% (0% a lot) 100% (0%) 0% (0%) 31 67 (29%) 50% (42%) 10% (10%) 20 - 242 56% (7%) 38% (18%) 15% (6%) 52 - 573 57% (20%) 28% (9%) 28% (9%) 353 - 3974 58% (15%) 30% (9%) 31% (8%) 262 - 2685 48% (13%) 27% (5%) 14% (2%) 63 - 65

P-Value 0.061 0.000 0.056

Former pupils asked “How useful was careers advice in...” Highest qual level deciding on career getting a job getting into HE N0 100% (0% a lot) 100% (0%) 0% (0%) 31 81% (31%) 81% (50%) 53% (47%) 16 - 172 79% (18%) 59% (15%) 52% (13%) 23 - 283 65% (16%) 48% (13%) 41% (8%) 196 - 2114 58% (10%) 39% (6%) 42% (13%) 125 - 1305 58% (9%) 32% (2%) 43% (8%) 40 - 44

P-Value 0.114 0.000 0.001

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?

0 1 2 3 4 or more

Which of the following BEST applies to you?

NEETs 26.1% 23.4% 16.6% 15.6% 4.3%

Non-NEET 73.9% 76.6% 83.4% 84.4% 95.7%

Weighted Base 272 350 145 64 69

Correlation between NEET status at 19-24 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?

0 1 2 3 4 or moreThinking 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 266 345 145 59 68

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 20-24 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 generalquestion 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 DawkinsEducational Research Analyst, Education and Employers Taskforce

James.Dawkins@educationandemployers.org