As the Milburn Review considers how schools can do more to prepare children for the world of work, Camden is already giving primary pupils the chance to meet employers and explore careers from an early age.
Camden STEAM is a collaboration between Camden Learning and Camden Council, bringing schools, employers and organisations together to give children opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM) beyond the classroom. This year the programme has been significantly scaled up and funding secured for the next two years.
Around 400 Year 4 pupils from 16 Camden primary schools have taken part in Camden Primary Careers Days this year as part of the Camden STEAM programme, with the latest event held at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in September. It follows a first event at the British Library in July, with both events centred around interactive workshops and activities designed to open their eyes to the range of careers available to them.
The RVC event was the first time the College has hosted the Camden Primary Careers Day, bringing pupils into a world-leading higher education institution and giving them a chance to discover how science, technology and other STEAM subjects connect to real careers.
Dr Grace Mackintosh Sim, Public Engagement Manager at the RVC said:
Research shows the importance of early experiences in career aspirations; at RVC we are committed to supporting our local communities through enabling primary age children to meet inspiring university role models, and to have enriching opportunities to develop their science skills.
The day was designed to be hands-on, with pupils rotating through activities and meeting employers directly. At the RVC, they explored how vets learn about animals and had the opportunity to see and handle specimens from the College’s collections, while other activities introduced them to the range of roles within science, technology and arts sectors.
At the British Library in July, pupils worked with neuroscientists and robots, explored coding and artificial intelligence with UCL Computing, investigated architecture and film-making.
Employers who took part in the events
- Archio
- Ballymore
- British Library
- Camden Council
- Camden Learning
- CBRE
- Digital Catapult
- Howarth Tompkins
- HS2
- Lambert Smith Hampton
- LifeArc
- LifeFabs Institute
- London Screen Academy
- Maccreanor Lavington
- Mace
- No Black Boxes
- Royal Veterinary ColleGE
- Skelly & Couch
- Springer Nature
- Springer Nature
- The Orangery TCR
- UCL Arts & Sciences
- UCL Computing
- UCL Widening Participation
- Veolia
Lyndsey Douglas, Early Careers Manager at the British Library, said:
Access to workplaces can have a huge impact on a young person’s career choices, which is why the British Library is proud to partner with Camden Learning and Camden STEAM to engage students in our local communities.
By inviting students to understand the various roles that exist at the Library, we hope to show children that there are many pathways to working at the UK’s national library, including an exciting range of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) careers.
The Careers Days are now also part of Camden Learning’s Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) curriculum framework, so the events connect directly to classroom learning. Lead teachers Kathryn Pagnello, Lewis Hollings (Christ Church Primary School, NW3) and Shareen Sohun (Rhyl Primary School) brought their expertise to designing the teaching resources and led schools on the day. Teachers prepare pupils beforehand, helping them understand different careers and think about the questions they want to ask. Pupils then meet employers face to face and put that learning into practice.
Richard Donnelly, STEAM Schools Manager at Camden Learning, says:
When you introduce eight and nine-year-olds to people doing all kinds of different jobs, you never quite know what might spark their imagination. It might be meeting an engineer, discovering what a neuroscientist does or simply talking to someone whose job they’ve never heard of before.
The aim is to open their eyes to the possibilities and help them see that there are careers out there for them too. That first spark of interest can stay with a child and grow as they get older. It’s about helping them think, ‘that looks interesting – maybe I could do that one day.
Sometimes the simplest discoveries make the biggest impression. One pupil said:
I didn’t realise that there were so many different jobs out there. Today I found out about jobs I never even thought existed!
It was a small moment, but one that captures the purpose of the programme: giving children the chance to meet people they can see themselves in, hear about jobs they may never have encountered and begin to imagine possibilities for their own future.
For Camden Learning, moments like this demonstrate why employer engagement needs to start early. Children may not yet know what a neuroscientist, architect, engineer or environmental scientist does, but meeting someone who does the job can turn an unfamiliar job title into something real and understandable.
The programme is also helping build stronger relationships between Camden schools and the organisations around them. Employers are given practical, interactive activities to run with pupils, while schools gain direct connections with people working across a wide range of sectors.
Camden Learning is now looking to build on the programme by strengthening primary schools engagement in our STEAM Ambassador network, enabling employers to get involved in the careers days and wider activities, to visit schools and continue introducing pupils to different careers.
With the Milburn Review expected to call for greater attention to young people’s future employment prospects from primary school onwards, Camden is already putting that principle into practice by giving children opportunities to explore the world of work years before they have to make decisions about their own future.
For more information, please contact: steampledge@camden.gov.uk
