Youth Aspirations in London

London Councils commissioned Ipsos to undertake a piece of qualitative and quantitative research with Key Stage 4 pupils (aged 14-16) to investigate aspirations in young people. The research finds that most young people are optimistic about their future; more than four in five (82%) pupils say that they feel positive about their future after Year 11. The one in ten (11%) who say they feel not very, or not at all positive about their future, however, highlight the need for greater support.

Other key findings include:

• Three quarters (75%) of pupils say they have thought a lot or a fair amount about what they will do after Year 11. A levels are the most popular option (75%), followed by getting a part-time job (53%), a diploma or other course (39%) or an apprenticeship (23%).
• Familiarity with the options available to pupils after Year 11 is perhaps not as high as it should be. Whilst two thirds (66%) of pupils say they know at least a fair amount about the different things they could do after Year 11, a third (31%) say they know a little or nothing at all.
• The qualitative research suggests that young people would value information from people who have recently experienced further education. They do not always trust teachers or careers to offer them impartial advice and also feel that times have changed since their parents were in education, which means they don’t necessarily know the options available.
• Around seven in ten (71%) pupils feel that their teachers are supporting them to stay on in education or training after Year 11. A similar proportion (69%) of pupils agree that the government wants young people to stay in education/training after Year 11.
• Pupils identify a number of different aspects to success in life, such as: “making money”; “being a celebrity”; “having a family”; and “having a job you want to do”. Underpinning this understanding of success is both a personal sense of achievement and also that others recognise and respect you for it. However, notions of success at school are much more limited and tend to be focused around high achievement in exams.
• Among pupils who are not very confident in getting the exam results they want at the end of Year 11, the most commonly cited reasons pupils give are: I don’t think I work as hard as I could (57%); I get distracted by my friends (44%); I get distracted at home (35%); my lessons are boring (35%); and I don’t feel supported by my teachers (19%).
• Three in ten (30%) pupils say they have ‘bunked off’ school. The most common reasons for this are that pupils don’t like their teachers (40%), they do not enjoy school (37%), thinking that bunking off is more fun than school (30%), to avoid getting into trouble (21%) and because their friends bunk off (18%).