Why is Career Orientation Important in Primary School?

Introduction: Why is Career Orientation Important in Primary School?

Research shows that students, even from as young as 3 and 4 years old, need to be exposed to a range of careers and jobs that are out there. This is not to say that every child will want to be or should be aiming to working in the STEM field, but that they should be aware of choices and options. By sharing a wide range of careers with students, they can begin to navigate their own thoughts, preferences and consider what they could or would like to do. It is also important for students to hear from real life scientists, who they can relate to and understand how those scientists’ jobs impact their lives and the wider world.

In the past, career advice and input has often been earmarked for teenagers, but there is now a realisation, that children from an early age need to see themselves as scientists and understand the many disciplines within the STEM field and the many jobs available in those fields. So in our resources, we have highlighted careers related to the experiments, so students can be better informed from an earlier age.

As well as having good career advice at an early age, students need to see a diverse group of role models. There are many stereotypes and possibly the greatest one for students would be that scientists are white men, who wear white lab coats. We need to break these gender and societal stereotypes, by showing children scientists with disabilities, varied ethnicities and sexual orientations. The phrase ‘You need to see it to be it’ or ‘You can't be what you can't see’ have been used for the last few years, so we must endeavour to show our students a range of different careers being followed by a diverse group of scientists. You can introduce children to a diverse range of scientists at A Scientist Just Like Me, a resource by the Primary Science Teaching Trust.

All STEM jobs presented in the material

Here you find an overview of all the STEM professions presented in the teaching material.
 

How can careers be addressed in the classroom?

The teaching material "Save our nature - Let's explore together" offers various suggestions on how STEM professions can be integrated into primary school lessons. The professions presented fit the respective experiments. The students understand why what they have learned is important and how they can use their knowledge and skills.

STEM professions can be presented by the teacher and discussed together with the students in class. To support teachers, these materials offer helpful texts on the professions that are relevant to the respective experiments. They include a brief description of the profession as well as a look at a typical work day and possible tasks.

In addition to the texts, you find further links to interactive presentations, external videos and texts.

Videos – Insights into careers

Videos are a great way to introduce children to careers. Through the moving images, the students can immerse themselves in the everyday life of different professionals and in different environments.

This video from the "Oil Spill Cleanup" experiment highlights the important work of marine biologists, molecular biologists and ecologists.
 

Interactive presentations – Exploration for everyone

Interactive presentations invite the students to explore STEM jobs independently. The key information about various professions is summarized in text. There are also audio files, quizzes, and links to external videos to take a closer look at the professions.

The presentations are suitable for individual student work with tablets, but can also be used in class on a screen.
 

External sources

Explore exciting further resources!