As a Primary Careers Specialist and strong advocate of Primary Careers Education over many years, I'm always looking for evidence and strategies to help ensure every child- regardless of background- has the opportunity to dream big and build a path to those dreams. A new OECD report, Challenging Social Inequality Through Career Guidance (2024), offers a powerful and timely insight into the structural challenges many children face, and how we as educators can rise to meet them.
Too often, we talk about careers as something that starts in secondary school. But we now know that children begin shaping their career aspirations well before age 11. Their views about what’s possible are often limited not by potential, but by exposure.
By the time many children walk into a Year 6 classroom, their dreams are already filtered by:
- Gender stereotypes.
- Media-dominated projections and job lists.
- A narrow list of perceived "aspirational" jobs.
- A lack of relatable role models.
Meanwhile, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds or migrant families may dream smaller- not due to lack of ambition, but due to lower visibility of opportunity.
The OECD report is clear: ambition is not the problem- access is.
Unequal Starting Lines: The Role of Background
The report’s findings confirm what many of us witness firsthand in schools: young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, migrant families, and girls are most at risk of poor labour market outcomes, even when their aspirations are just as high- or higher- than their peers’.
These students face multiple barriers:
- Less access to family knowledge about professional careers or educational pathways.
- Lower engagement in career development activities such as employer visits or role-play work experiences.
- Stereotyped expectations- especially regarding gender and ethnicity.
- A tendency to aim either unrealistically high (influencer, sports star) or too low, due to limited understanding of what’s possible.
What is particularly heartbreaking is that these young people don’t lack ambition- they simply lack access to the social, cultural, and economic capital that helps turn ambition into reality.
The Primary Opportunity: Build Early, Build Fair
As primary educators, we’re in a unique position to create what the report calls a ‘culture of aspiration.’ That means helping children:
- Explore the full range of careers- not just the famous ones.
- Engage with professionals and workplaces- virtually or in person.
- Reflect critically on who ‘belongs’ in different jobs and why.
And crucially, it means targeting our efforts towards those who need it most.
We know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds:
- Are less likely to engage in career-related learning.
- Underestimate the role of qualifications and skills.
- Have fewer connections to guide them or open doors.
The solution? Equity-focused career learning, starting in primary.
OECD Strategies in Practice
The OECD report outlines four key strategies that are relevant to every primary classroom:
- Targeted Provision for Disadvantaged Groups
Tailored interventions- whether small-group sessions, mentoring, or focused resources- ensure no child is left behind.
- Building Social Capital
Bring in diverse speakers, use virtual tours, and partner with employers to help children see people like them in a variety of jobs.
- Enhancing Professional Capacity
Teachers need training, tools, and time to deliver meaningful career-related learning. Understanding how inequality shapes ambition is vital.
- Encouraging Critical Awareness of Inequality
Even young children can question stereotypes. Structured conversations about gender roles, cultural assumptions, and fairness can help shift mindsets early.
Webinar Insights: Preparing Children for Their Future, Not Our Past
The webinar held alongside the report’s launch yesterday provided further insights:
1. Virtual Exposure Matters
AI and digital tools now enable virtual internships, career chats, and workplace tours. We can connect pupils with professionals across the globe, democratising access to knowledge.
“We are educating young people for our past-not their futures.”
– Cath Possamai, Director of Talent Acquisition, Amazon EMEA
With the National Curriculum review currently taking place, it is vital that adaptations are made to ensure our future adults can access the learning they need which is suitable for them to build a successful, engaging, happy life.
2. Let’s Bridge the Aspirational Gap Before It Becomes an Inequality Gap
Children may dream big, but without context, pathways, and guidance, those dreams can falter. They need to understand how to get from where they are to where they want to be.
3. Start Early, Get Real, Stay Inclusive
International best practice shows the power of early intervention:
- Denmark: Progressive work experience from age 13 onward.
- Germany: Girls’ and Boys’ Days where gender norms are challenged.
- Australia/New Zealand: Career education starting in early primary.
4. Core Skills Come First
Employers want more than just qualifications- they seek skills like resilience, communication, curiosity, and digital literacy. These develop through sports, teamwork, school clubs, and everyday classroom life.
5. Teachers as Facilitators and Connectors
Educators need support to link learning to the world of work. Resources like Inspiring the Future, the STEM Ambassador Programme, and the Destination STEM platform help build those connections. MYPATH resources are also excellent and accessed in some local authority areas across England- to support teachers to deliver Careers Education in an engaging, informing and relevant way to pupils.
So, What Can Primary Schools Do Now?
Here’s a simple, actionable framework:
⭐ SEE:
Let pupils explore a wide range of jobs through stories, books, posters, and videos.
⭐ SPEAK:
Invite diverse speakers- parents, alumni, local professionals- to share their paths.
⭐ STEP INTO IT:
Use role play, enterprise days, and virtual experiences to build familiarity and confidence.
⭐ SUPPORT:
Pay particular attention to children who show narrow aspirations or lack outside guidance. Scaffold their exploration with intention.
In Conclusion: We Plant the Seeds
As the OECD reminds us, what children think about their futures shapes how they learn in the present. By age 10, many career ideas are already forming. If we don’t intervene early, inequality only deepens.
Career learning in primary isn’t about asking children to choose a job. It’s about showing them the possibilities, challenging the barriers, and giving them the tools to shape their own paths.
‘Motivation, aspiration, showing them the world—those are our jobs.’
Let’s keep showing them the world.
Takeaway for Educators
Ask yourself:
- Whose aspirations are being supported in your classroom?
- Whose are being underestimated?
- And most importantly- what can you do to change that?
Together, we can help every child- no matter their background-turn ambition into achievement.
To read the whole report, follow the link- OECD report new 25.pdf