Science career plans of adolescents: patterns, trends and gender divides

As STEM workers work in the technologically most advanced and potentially most productive sectors of the labour market, meeting the future demand for STEM skills is considered high priority in the European Union. Knowing that a strong pathway dependency exists between STEM education and employment, in this report we examine STEM-related occupational expectations of adolescents to understand their ability and willingness to undertake STEM training and work. We systematically explore a range of potential influences on young people’s career plans starting from the individual characteristics of adolescents and their families, accounting for various features of school environments as well as country characteristics and policy interventions at a national level. For the analyses, we use PISA data from 2006 and 2015 surveys for each of the European Member States which allow for identifying the changes as well as continuity in adolescent preferences during this 10-year period. The past ten years have not brought about major changes in European students’ career orientations towards the STEM. In 2015 on average 20 out of 100 of 15-years old students in Europe declared to pursuit a science-related career in STEM occupations. However considerable differences across countries exist. In Finland for instance, only 12 out of 100 students are interested in STEM careers while in Slovenia 27 out of 100 students expect such careers. Expectations of STEM career plan are strongly divided by gender. On average in Europe, only 10 out of 100 females are interested in STEM careers while the number of boys expecting a similar career is almost triple. Between-country differences are remarkable. In Finland only 4 out of 100 female students want to engage into STEM while in Latvia the number of females that see their future in a STEM occupation is 4 times higher. Students develop their career plans differently across the different educational systems in Europe. In most countries, students who are on a vocational track at the age of 15 are increasingly interested in choosing a STEM job. Our findings suggest also a positive association between compulsory national examination in math and students’ plans to enter a STEM occupation. In terms of policy measures designed to mitigate the gender gap in the supply of young people available to train for employment in the STEM sector, the patterns presented in this report indicate an urgent need to develop more effective methods to encourage girls to consider STEM employment as a viable option for their own future.