Home > Research Projects > Career intentions in 16–18-year-olds

Career intentions in 16–18-year-olds

The Project

What do 16 to 18-year-olds really care about when it comes to selecting their future career? Do they see the teaching profession as a viable choice? It’s these big questions that we are aiming to start a conversation in with our nationwide study of Sixth Form students’ career attitudes, intentions, and beliefs to better understand career motivations and choices.

We are working with schools and colleges across the UK to survey their students and provide schools with information relevant to Gatsby Benchmarks about the breadth of career intentions, student motivations, and their learning experiences.

This study will form a part of an international piece comparing 16- to 18-year-olds in the UK, to those globally.

Research Questions

  • How do A-level students make career decisions?
  • What are the key motivations driving their choices?

Research Team

External Team

    Secondary schools in the UK, Germany and India

More Projects

  • Future directions in teacher education research, practice and policy
    January 2019 - January 2019
    In Trinity term 2019, the department ran a seminar series on ‘Future directions in teacher education research, practice and policy’.
    Discover more
  • Classroom simulations: Scenario-based learning?
    Scenario-based learning (SBL) presents participants with brief, authentic, interactive, text- and video-based scenarios that are followed by a series of questions requiring context-based reasoning.
    Discover more
  • Picture This: The Robson Orr Visual Literacy Research Initiative
    January 2025 - January 2028
    Children learn from infancy to engage with visual information, but visual literacy—the ability to interpret, analyse, and create meaning from visual information—needs to be developed.
    Discover more
  • Developing reliable and valid tools for teacher selection
    The ReNEW research team was among the first in the world to develop reliable and predictive situational judgment tests (SJTs) to identify high-quality candidates for teaching.
    Discover more
  • Using Realistic Job Previews to attract prospective teachers
    Realistic Job Previews offer a ‘try before you buy’ insight into a profession, allowing users to experience aspects of daily life before commiting to training.
    Discover more
  • TeacherCoach: AI solutions
    How can we harness AI chatbot capabilities to offer meaningful ‘just in time support’?
    Discover more

More News

  • Students
    News
    Department maintains “Outstanding” rating following OFSTED visit
    May 9, 2024
    Read More
  • Students
    News
    Department’s Teacher Education and Professional Learning Group wins BERA Award for Research on ‘The Reform of Initial Teacher Education in Wales’
    February 17, 2022
    Read More
  • Students
    News
    Launch: Transforming Teacher Education report
    May 29, 2020
    Read More
  • Students
    Blog
    Practical science and pandemics
    April 20, 2020
    Read More
  • Students
    News
    COVID-19: Department publishes home-schooling resource for parents and teachers
    March 30, 2020
    Read More
  • Students
    News
    Steven Puttick Co-Edits Book Examining Robert Grosseteste’s Ideas on Education
    February 13, 2020
    Read More

Project Details

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Theme: Pedagogy, Learning and Knowledge; Teacher Education and Professional Learning