Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds - particularly women - are more likely to choose courses with lower earning prospects, a new report from the Social Mobility Commission warns today. 

A new report examines the correlation between course choice and future earnings and says that students’ choice of a post-16 technical course is a driving force behind the gender pay gap between most disadvantaged men and women. 

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The impact of student choice post-16: the Social Mobility Commission’s key findings

1. The highest-earning routes are A levels or a combination of A levels and technical courses

• Academic courses are associated with the highest earnings, with 80 per cent of A-level courses ranked in the top 25 per cent of earnings.
• Courses combining academic and technical qualifications are relatively high-earning, too, with 70 per cent of students ending up in jobs ranked in the top 50 per cent of earnings.
• Technical qualifications, however, are mostly associated with low earnings, with 62 per cent of classroom-based technical qualifications and 40 per cent of apprenticeships in the bottom 25 per cent of earnings.

2. The small number of high-earning technical routes are mostly taken by men

• The technical qualifications with the highest earnings potential are level 3, particularly level 3 apprenticeships.
• Men are more likely to take courses in higher-earning subject areas, such as engineering, construction and planning. Women are more likely to study subjects associated with low earnings, such as retail, commerce, health, care and public services.

3. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to choose low-earning courses (particularly women)

• The most privileged men are 28 percentage points more likely to take a course in the top 25 per cent of earnings than men in the most deprived group, and the equivalent gap for women is 31 percentage points.
• Men and women with “just above average” levels of deprivation are 20 to 25 percentage points less likely to take a course in the top 25 per cent of earnings than the most affluent group.
• About 50 per cent of disadvantaged women take low-earning courses ranked in the bottom 25 per cent of earnings, which compares with about 31 per cent of disadvantaged men.
• Women are 10 percentage points more likely than men to choose the courses in technical education that pay the least well.

4. Some disadvantaged groups are more likely to choose low earning courses

• Prior attainment mostly explains why young people choose the highest-earning courses. However, some groups are more likely to choose the lowest paying routes, regardless of their achievements.
• High-achieving disadvantaged students are less likely to choose the higher-earning academic routes than students from privileged backgrounds.
• Disadvantaged women with middle and low levels of prior attainment are more likely to choose low-earning technical courses than women from privileged backgrounds.

5. Course choices explain more of the earnings inequalities for women than for men

• Disadvantage has persistent effects on early-career earnings, even after controlling for prior attainment. Men’s choice of subject or course does not make this any worse. However, there is a further “earnings penalty” for disadvantaged women of around four to five percentage points linked to their subject and course choices.

6. Those choosing low-earning courses include disadvantaged black Caribbean students and disadvantaged white British women

• Only 27 per cent  of women and 22 per cent of men from disadvantaged black Caribbean backgrounds took courses in the top 50 per cent of earnings.
• Only 24 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men from disadvantaged white British backgrounds took courses in the top 50 per cent of earnings.

7. There are significant gaps in the provision of careers guidance

• Only three in five young people reported receiving any career guidance before the age of 16. Learners and providers also felt that much less information was provided about technical routes compared with academic routes. This is despite the implementation in 2018 of the Baker Clause, which stipulates that all schools must allow colleges and training providers access to all students in Years 8 to 13 to discuss non-academic routes.
• Young people taking higher-level courses are usually better informed about education pathways and other opportunities open to them.

8. Disadvantaged young people are more likely to be disappointed by their choices

• Interest and enjoyment are important motivations for many students choosing courses. Higher-achieving learners are typically more able to pick a course they enjoy. Low-achieving learners frequently find some choice replaced by mandatory, corrective content so they enjoy less freedom.
• Aspirations are generally high. However, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to experience disappointment because of low attainment at the end of their course. As a result, they are more likely to find themselves on low-earning routes that they hadn’t intended to take.

9. Gender norms remain pervasive

• There are strong gender disparities in subjects such as engineering, IT, beauty and childcare. Teachers say that this replicates the gender bias present in the various industries. They also note that course choice can be strongly influenced by a student’s role models.

10. Geography and the availability of courses play an important role

• The cost of travel and how long it takes to get somewhere can influence a learner’s choice of provider and course. This is particularly the case for apprentices who need to travel to both their place of study and work. Disadvantaged students are more likely to take higher-level courses (eg, level 3 courses) in areas such as London where there is a wide availability of school sixth forms. They are much less likely to take these higher-earning courses in places such as the North West and North East of England, where there is the lowest availability of school sixth forms.