Career beliefs, aspirations and after-school activities: The effects of socio-economic status and ethnicity

Abstract

This study examines the career beliefs of students from an ethnically diverse state school in London using an adapted short version of the ‘Careers Beliefs Patterns Scale’ (Arulmani, Van Laar & Easton, 2003, p.199). Results suggest that ethnicity had a much lower impact than socio-economic status on students’ career beliefs and aspirations, whilst religion and ethnicity had a substantial influence on participation in extra-curricular activities. Recommendations include working with parents to create programmes which support students from lower socio-economic status backgrounds and communicating with religious organisations regarding ways that employability skills can be developed within their youth programmes.