Insight briefing 1: The promise of primary

Primary Pilot Programme demonstrates early promise

Early indications from Wave 1 of our Start Small; Dream Big pilot show real promise emerging, with a range of positive outcomes for schools, teachers, pupils, parents and the employers who took part.

The Pilot Programme was launched in 2022 and aims to bring career-related learning from the margins to the mainstream of education. Over a two-and-a-half-year period, it will reach hundreds of thousands of pupils and thousands of primary schools in targeted disadvantaged communities across the country.

The findings of this first Insight Briefing are based on early insights from the four participating ‘trailblazer’ Careers Hubs (Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Greater Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and North East Combined Authority) and 302 primary schools. These areas have significantly higher levels of disadvantage than the national average, with an average Pupil Premium rate of 30% compared to the national average of 24%.

According to the findings, the pilot is boosting children’s knowledge and confidence about what their future could look like, raising aspirations and breaking down stereotypes about what jobs girls and boys believe they can do.

The top three early insights on impact to date are:

• Insight 1: School careers provision and leadership commitment improved – teachers’ careers-related knowledge and skills improved; 55% included careers content in the curriculum (up from 14%) and 52% of schools had a formal written careers strategy in place (up from 10%).
• Insight 2: Pupil careers knowledge and confidence rose, the influence of stereotypes fell, and parents noticed a difference - girls showed increased interest in non-gender-stereotyped jobs such as law, finance, construction and building. There was a 6% improvement in pupil understanding of jobs beyond those their family did and a third of parents said they were having more conversations with their children about the world of work.
• Insight 3: Employers valued working with primary pupils and want to do more - 73% valued working with primary schools and 92% said they were strongly committed to continuing the work.

Looking to the future, laying the foundations of career-related learning in primary offers the opportunity to smooth the transition between primary and the careers education system in secondary schools. Two further waves are currently being implemented by other CEC Careers Hubs.

We look forward to publishing further insights as the pilot progresses into 2025.