10/1/2026 10:59:45 AM | 2 minute read

The careers lottery starts earlier than we think

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Jamie Otter

Partner

Get in touch

Jamie Otter

Partner

Alan Milburn wants children to start learning about the world of work from the age of four, with work experience becoming mandatory for 14 to 16-year-olds. The proposal comes at a time when almost a million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training.

Four may sound young, and some parents will undoubtedly think it is too young. I'm not one of them, and I'll explain why. What caught my attention first, though, was Milburn's observation that around four in ten 14 to 16-year-olds currently receive no work experience at all. In some schools, pupils are expected to find their own placements, often through family contacts.

Most parents will recognise the instinct. If you know somebody who can offer your child a week of work experience, why wouldn't you ask?

One young person spends a week in a law firm because a family friend is a partner. Another shadows an engineer because somebody they know can make an introduction. Someone else never gets the opportunity because there is nobody to ask.

We often talk about lifelong learning, retraining and career change as though they begin in adulthood. In reality, much of the groundwork is laid years earlier. People's willingness to explore different paths is shaped by what they have seen along the way. Someone who grows up meeting people in a range of professions is likely to carry a different view of work from someone whose understanding comes from a much narrower circle.

The research points the same way. Education and Employers found that young adults who recalled four or more employer contacts at school were far less likely to be NEET, and the same work found that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds had the least contact with employers. Its researchers also note that the attitudes and assumptions young people form about who does which jobs begin in the primary years.

A child who has spoken to an architect, scientist, lawyer or entrepreneur may not remember every conversation. A visit from someone with an unfamiliar job can widen their sense of what is possible. Nobody is deciding a four-year-old's future. What these encounters do is make more futures visible. Years later, when someone is weighing up a career change, considering further study or deciding whether a particular ambition is realistic, they are often drawing on a picture of the world that started forming much earlier.

Schools are under significant pressure, and in rural areas the pool of employers and volunteers may be limited. Places with the strongest local networks often find opportunities more easily than those without them. The result could be that the areas with the greatest access today end up with even more tomorrow.

Government can provide the funding and set the expectation. Local authorities, community organisations and civic leaders can help schools find employers and volunteers they would never reach on their own. Employers can open their doors and show young people careers they might not otherwise encounter.

The first glimpse of a profession shouldn't depend on who your parents know. Government, civic leaders and employers can all do something about that.