Deprivation and gender impact on career prospects

Engrained negative thinking about postsecondary prospects is contributing to high levels of youth unemployment in Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities, according to new research from the University of Dundee and The Kelvin Centre.

The researchers found that school leavers from these areas are more pessimistic about their career prospects than peers from more affluent backgrounds. They also report less secure attachment relationships with people who they can speak to about career opportunities.

Gender added to these differences. Females were even more pessimistic about their success after school than males who, in turn, had reported fewer secure attachment relationships.

The authors say their findings have important implications for current policy initiatives, including the Young Person’s Guarantee Scheme. This scheme aims to help the young people that schools deem to be at the greatest risk of failing to make a successful transition to employment, further education or training.

Every school leaver in Scotland is offered a placement in work or training, fully funded by Scottish Government. Despite this, 13% of school leavers every year do not take advantage of this safety net and become unemployed.

The researchers sought to identify differences in the thinking patterns of people in Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities which could explain why they are hugely over-represented in youth unemployment figures, despite being specifically targeted by the scheme.

Recent work by Scottish Government has removed economic barriers to employment or training places. The new research suggests that the remaining obstacles lie within the thinking habits and patterns of individual young people.

Participants were asked 11 questions relating to their career prospects, perceived barriers to success, accessible support from family and friends, and other factors that may influence outcomes.

The authors recommend teaching, counselling and coaching interventions designed to enable high school students to explore and challenge their subjective and objective experiences of career barriers as a way of improving postsecondary outcomes.

“Our results show that high school students from areas of higher deprivation were more likely to report that a postsecondary career was going to be difficult for them, and that circumstances were getting in the way of their choices,” said Keith Topping, Professor of Educational and Social Research at the University.

“This is a huge waste of talent and human potential. It also leaves those involved vulnerable to serious negative, long-term health and wellbeing consequences. The research gives a new explanation for this serious social justice problem in terms of individual differences in young people.

“These findings are important and novel because many previous research and policy initiatives have focused on the identification and removal of external economic barriers to employment success after school.

“Our research focuses instead on the barriers within the thinking of vulnerable young people. This offers a new way of intervening to help level the playing field for those young people at greatest risk of being unable to take up the Young Person’s Guarantee.”

The research shows that young women leaving school in the most economically disadvantaged communities in Scotland may be among the most vulnerable of all students to a self-fulfilling pessimistic view about their career prospects after school.

Study co-author Dr Walter Douglas, an Educational Psychologist at The Kelvin Centre, said, “Female students in particular may benefit from specific interventions which help them to develop their levels of optimism about their career prospects.

“At the same time, male students may benefit from interventions to increase the number and security of the attachment relationships they have with people they trust to discuss their career.

The research has resulted in an evidence-based assessment tool called the School Leaver Assessment Scale. This free resource can help teachers work directly with young people, focusing on their thinking patterns.

The paper is published in the Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology.