Science and medicine-related professions top UK students’ career goals

Project GenerationeXt was established by Roche to encourage the next generation to enter a career in life sciences. It provides resources for students, teachers and parents on the online GenerationeXt hub. GenerationeXt surveyed 2,500 16-24 year-olds and found that science and medicine-related professions were the most popular career goals for UK students, and science was the most popular subject in school.

However, 60% of students feel there is not enough encouragement to embark upon a career in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) industries and 80% of 17 year-olds are concerned they will not secure a job despite the 40,000 STEM-related vacancies each year. There is a lack of confidence in their abilities, not helped by 25% being told at some point in their educational lives that they would not be successful in the life sciences industry. This lack of support led around 33% of students to abandon a STEM career either because it sounded too complicated or because they felt they were not clever enough.

Prof Alice Roberts, professor of public engagement in science at the University of Birmingham, said: “Careers in science and technology are so varied, so creative and offer so much potential to really make a difference to peoples’ lives. It’s a great shame if young people are turned off by misconceptions about what is really a gloriously diverse range of different subjects and disciplines, by negative stereotypes, and by ideas that science “isn’t for them. That’s why initiatives like GenerationeXt are so important – we need to blow some myths out of the water!”

75% of the students surveyed were concerned about post-Brexit uncertainty for the UK life sciences sector and the impact of the current political and economic climate on their future careers.

Richard Erwin, general manager of Roche UK, said: “With heightened post-Brexit anxieties and the shortage of skills in the life sciences sector, it is even more critical that we support the next generation of home-grown talent to ensure that British science remains world class – the future of UK healthcare innovation depends on it. The industry has a duty to address the gap in STEM uptake, including the misconception that you need to have a particular set of skills to pursue a career in this industry.”