What future choices options are young people interested in ?
Young People are still most interested in sixth form and university , even after Covid .
We asked young people what future educational and employment options they were interested in before and after the Covid-19 lockdown . On the whole we young people have not really changed their minds on what they want to do in the future and that all the changes were fairly minor . Slightly fewer young people wanted to go to university , down 6 % from 59 % to 53 %. There was a similar story for sixth forms , down 3 % from 54 % to 51 %. Interestingly there was little change in the number of young people wanting to take a gap year . This was a little surprising as opportunities for travel have been greatly reduced this year , but the young researchers suggest that many young people will be taking gap years as the university experience will not be the same this year .
Boys were more likely to be interested in under taking an apprenticeship than girls , 27 % compared to 15 % ( post-Covid comparison ). Boys were also more likely to be interested in an apprenticeship than a college course , the opposite was true for girls . This perhaps reflects traditional gender stereotypes and that apprenticeships are widely perceived as being associated by male-dominated industries such as construction and engineering , where as college courses are often associated with more female-dominated service industries . Girls were more likely to want to have a gap year than boys , 27 % compared to 13 % ( post- Covid comparison ).
The changes in future plans before and after the lockdown were more pronounced in among specific group of young people however . Of those on free school meals or receiving pupil premium , 53 % were interested in going to university before lockdown and this dropped to 44 % post lockdown ( a fall of 9 %). There was a similar drop in those interested in sixth form from 59 % to 50 %. We assume this drop in interested may be linked to the associated costs of travel and accommodation .
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