In new research from British Gas, it's been revealed that when it comes to apprenticeships, parents are almost twice as likely to advise males to go down that route than females, with poor career advice also meaning that over 70% of girls top three career choices are traditionally female stereotyped roles.
The majority of girls want to head into the beauty industry
22% of parents would encourage their sons to take on an apprenticeship course whilst only 12% of parents would give the same advice to their daughter, with many instead hoping they'd go in a completely different direction.
The independent survey showed that 35% of parents admitted to giving their children differing career advice depending on their gender, resulting in one girl in ten across the UK seeing an apprenticeship as a viable option for their future. Despite that, more than twice as many teenage boys (22%) are keen to go straight into an apprenticeship scheme after school.
Training 1,200 apprentices across the UK, British Gas is now urging more females to consider an apprenticeship, explaining that in 2014, only 4% of applicants for its competitive technical and engineering apprenticeship schemes were women.
Managing Director for Service & Repaid at British Gas, Claire Miles commented: "It's clear from this research that apprenticeships are still regarded as something of a man's world among young people. That's behind the times! Despite the rising popularity of apprenticeships, we're disappointed that more girls aren't benefiting from this career option. "Apprenticeships are a great way into an organisation. A British Gas apprenticeship allows you to earn while you learn and encourages you to develop skills for life. I'd encourage all girls thinking about their future career, or looking for employment, to consider an apprenticeship."
Also shown in the new study is that just under half (49%) of the female teenagers polled complained of receiving unhelpful career advice, with 44% of male respondents also sharing the same complaint.
It could be down to this poor career advice that girls are now limiting their own career choices, with over 70% of those surveyed expressing a desire to go into traditionally "female" stereotyped roles, with the top three choices being the beauty industry (75%), nursing (73%) and childcare (72%).
Here are some tips for teenagers that are interested in applying for an apprenticeship at British Gas:
- Head over to www.gov.uk/further-education-skills the official apprenticeship website to discover more about apprenticeships
- Keep a close eye on http://po.st/BGNAW2015 for information on apprenticeship schemes
- Attend one of British Gas' open days during National Apprenticeship Week. The events will be hosted at each of the company's six training academies, which are located across the country. You can register your interest by visiting: http://po.st/BGNAW2015
The survey was conducted amongst 2,000 teenagers aged between 15 and 22, and 1,500 parents, with interviews conducted in February of this year online by Redshift Research, using an email invitation and online survey.