An Angus school is showing how to drag careers advice into the 21st century, by starting extremely young and bringing cutting-edge jobs and professionals into the classroom.

It used to be that when you asked boys what they wanted to be when they left school, the stock response was “footballer”. Now it is “YouTuber”, said teacher Ruth Mcfarlane, of Maisondieu Primary in Brechin, which will lead a session on careers advice at next month’s Scottish Learning Festival (SLF).

Ms Mcfarlane got Scottish YouTuber Mike Boyd in to speak to pupils - he posts videos in which he rapidly learns new skills, from solving the Rubik’s Cube, to learning a musical instrument in fewer than eight hours.

The move was part of the school’s work to improve its career education, a challenge all primaries face since the government made it clear that this should be delivered from 3-18 and that all schools - not only secondaries - should have “meaningful and productive” partnerships with employers.

For schools struggling to recruit staff and contending with dwindling resources, it is not an easy proposition. Secondary headteachers admit that before the government launched the Developing the Young Workforce strategy in 2014 careers education was something of a forgotten area. Careers guidance, as delivered by Skills Development Scotland, has been criticised in the past for an over-reliance on web-based resources.

Ms Mcfarlane praises the growing number of primary resources developed by SDS, and she - as the careers education lead in her school - has had success forging links with business. As well as Mr Boyd, whose YouTube videos have attracted millions of views, Maisondieu pupils have grilled myriad professionals about their chosen careers, including the owner of a jam-making company, a butcher, a wedding planner, Beano comic artists and an offshore chemist.

Breaking down barriers

Pupils assumed the offshore chemist would be a man, said Ms Mcfarlane - but she wasn’t. Gender stereotyping is one reason why the school is keen to start careers education from nursery. Depute headteacher Lynette Mimiec fears that horizons can narrow early.

Last year research showed that by the age of 4 gender stereotypes about potential career choices were firmly in place (see graphic, left).

Ms Mimiec said: “For people of my generation, careers education used to be about meeting a careers guidance teacher for a couple of hours in secondary, and that was you done, but we need to start having those conversations in primary.”

Maisondieu has developed a clear picture of how children should build up their knowledge of the world of work, from nursery to P7.

Meanwhile, at Glasgow’s Barmulloch Primary, depute headteacher Cheryl Kelly - who will also speak at the SLF next month - said she was “passionate” about the new focus on careers education and credits it with raising pupils’ aspirations.

Details about the Barmulloch and Maisondieu sessions - and other SLF presentations - are available at bit.ly/SLFprogramme