The problem is real, and it's urgent

The world of work is changing faster than young people are being prepared for it — and the UK is at the front of that curve.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 estimates that 39% of workers' core skills will need to change by 2030. The OECD's Employment Outlook 2025 finds that 27% of jobs are now at high risk of automation, with one in three new vacancies showing high AI exposure.

In the UK specifically, McKinsey's 2025 analysis found that entry-level job postings — apprenticeships, internships, junior roles — have fallen by almost a third since ChatGPT launched in late 2022. Youth unemployment for 16–24-year-olds has risen from 10.9% to 14.3% over the same period.

The domestic picture is equally stark. By the end of 2025, nearly one million young people aged 16–24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training — 957,000 according to ONS figures. Experts warn this figure will reach one million without intervention. Alan Milburn, commissioned by government to lead an independent review into young people and work, has described the education system as "brilliant at sorting young people by academic ability and poor at equipping them for adult life." He has said that time and again, employers report that young people are simply not work ready.

But demand is not collapsing uniformly. The skills that are growing — systems-level problem solving, hands-on technical work, adaptive thinking, creative problem solving — map directly onto what the Engineering Habits of Mind framework was designed to develop.

And there is a third layer to the problem. Research from the ASPIRES 2 study at UCL shows that young people — particularly girls and those from underrepresented backgrounds — have typically decided whether STEM is "for people like me" by age 14. Many young people — particularly Black students — are genuinely interested in science, but don't see scientific careers as "for me." That's not an awareness problem. It's an identity problem. RC Vision exists to close that gap through experience, not information.

The young people most likely to opt out of STEM early are the same young people most exposed to labour market turbulence when they enter work. Inaction is not neutral. RC Vision works at precisely the moments when that decision is still open.

Measurement grounded in learning science

Every RC Vision programme is evaluated. Our approach to measurement has been developed in consultation with educational psychologists and school leadership teams, and is grounded in three established frameworks from the research literature.

The first is the Engineering Habits of Mind framework (Lucas, Hanson & Claxton, Royal Academy of Engineering, 2014) — six cognitive dispositions that the evidence shows are increasingly valuable in an AI-exposed labour market: systems thinking, problem definition, visualising, creative problem solving, improving, and adapting. These are what we develop, and they are what we measure.

The second is Science Capital (Godec & Watson) — a model of the four dimensions that shape whether a young person comes to see STEM as "for them": what they know, how they think, what they do, and who they know. Our programmes are designed to build Science Capital across all four dimensions, not just subject knowledge.

The third is the Self-Concept as Gatekeeper theory (Chen et al., 2024) — which demonstrates that STEM exposure only translates into aspiration when a young person's internal sense of themselves has shifted first. This is why our evaluation tracks identity and confidence measures, not just knowledge gains. We know that identity change precedes career change.

What we measure across every programme:

Pre- and post-workshop surveys measure changes across seven outcome domains:

Understanding of the forces shaping the future of work
Understanding of how engineering thinking solves complex problems
Awareness of career management skills
Ability to connect personal strengths to future careers
Confidence in science, engineering and technology
Interest in STEM-related jobs and careers
STEM identity — whether young people see themselves as someone who belongs in engineering and technical fields

What we claim — and what we don't:

We are deliberate about the boundaries of our claims. Short interventions are highly effective at shifting self-concept, perceived ability, and recognition of personal strengths — what the research calls an "identity spark." They are not, on their own, sufficient to permanently alter career aspirations or A-level choices. Those changes require sustained engagement over time.

This is why our product ladder moves from workshops (identity spark) to term-long clubs and programmes (sustained engagement) to inter-school competitions (community and belonging). The evidence base informs not just our measurement, but our programme design.

Alignment with national frameworks:

Our evaluation approach and programme design align with the Gatsby Benchmarks for Good Career Guidance (particularly Benchmarks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8) and support Ofsted's Personal Development strand. Schools receive a full programme evaluation report on request.