Key Findings

In this, part 3 of 4 of the Tech Nation Talent series, we investigate young people’s perceptions of tech as a future career.

This research is critical to build an understanding of young people’s career preferences, and those aspects of tech that might lead to an alternative career choice. In doing so, we highlight opportunities for tech companies, founders and CEOs to move the UK towards a more inclusive and diverse future tech workforce.

1) Technology was the most popular choice of future career for young men at 36% of responses, whilst Creative and design (26%) and Professions (36%) was most popular for young women.

Careers that young men wanted to work in future

Careers that young men wanted to work in future
Proportion of respondents (%)	Proportion of respondents (%)
Technology	36%
Start my own business	26%
Professions	20%
Creative and design	18%
Sports and entertainment	18%
Financial services	13%
Other	12%
Construction	10%
Retail	9%
Uniformed services	9%
Manufacturing	6%

Careers that young women wanted to work in future

Careers that young women wanted to work in future
Proportion of respondents (%)
Professions	36%
Creative and design	26%
Start my own business	24%
Other	21%
Technology	13%
Retail	13%
Uniformed services	11%
Financial services	10%
Sport and entertainment	9%
Construction	2%
Manufacturing	2%

2) Technology was the fifth most mentioned career for all Reddit users. The young people discussing careers tended to mention sectors like ‘Finance’ and ‘Energy’ more often when talking about careers.

Mentions of careers on Reddit (All)

Sectors
Number of mentions
Finance	1315
Energy	468
Cyclical consumer goods	388
Industrials	329
Technology	162
Healthcare	156
Utilities	107
Basic materials	54
Non-cyclical consumer goods	24
Telecom services	2

3) But for UK careers discussions, Technology was slightly lower down the rankings. It was the sixth most mentioned career behind ‘Finance’, ‘Energy’, ‘Industrials’, ‘Cyclical consumer goods and services’, and ‘Healthcare’.

Mentions of careers on Reddit (UK)

Sectors
Number of mentions	Number of mentions
Finance	14
Cyclical consumer goods	9
Energy	8
Industrials	4
Healthcare	3
Technology	2

4) The difference in preference for a tech career based on gender highlights a concerning trend. Of those young people who wanted to work in tech, 70% were young men, whilst only 30% were young women.

Gender of young people who want to work in Technology

Gender
Proportion of respondents (%)
Male	69.7%
Female	28.2%
Other	2.1%

5) Young people aged 16 are more likely to want to work in tech than other age groups surveyed (21%). On the other hand young people aged 19 and older expressed a preference to start their own business and work in Retail.

Age of young people who want to work in tech (normalised by age distribution in survey sample)

Proportion of young people
Age	Age
15	0.22
16	0.32
17	0.23
18	0.23
19+	0.21

6) Those who wanted to work in technology cited ‘the fast moving and exciting nature’ of the sector (55%), ‘interesting jobs’ (54%) and ‘good pay’ (50%) as reasons for wanting to work in the sector

Reasons stated by young people (who want to work in Technology) for wanting to work in Technology in the future

Statement about careers in tech
Proportion of young people who want to work in technology (%)	Proportion of young people who want to work in technology (%)
Fast moving sector	55
Interesting jobs	54
Well paying jobs	50
Big tech company profile	45
Good use of STEM skills	36
I know people in tech	18
Tech companies at a careers fair	18
Friends/parents recommend	14
Other	3

7) Young people cited job security as the most important aspect of future work (93%) followed by Salary (92%)

Perceptions of career factors of young people who want to work in Technology

Career factor
Proportion of young people who want to work in Technology (%)	Not at all important	Not very important	Fairly important	Very important
Job security	1	6	49	44
Salary	2	6	52	40
Work-life balance	1	8	39	52
Career progression	1	9	44	45
Working with diverse people	6	28	42	24
Working with the latest technology	7	43	37	13

9) Many young people in our survey felt that work experience was crucial to getting their first job (65%), and that they would consider an apprenticeship instead of a university degree if it offered a way into a professional career (60%).

Young people’s perceptions of career paths

Statement about career paths
Proportion of young people (%)	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Neither agree nor disagree	Agree	Strongly agree
Work experience crucial	3%	10%	22%	43%	22%
App’ship over uni for career	5%	15%	20%	38%	22%
Too few training opportunities	3%	13%	25%	40%	19%
Earn more with uni education	6%	15%	35%	29%	15%

10) Of those young people who did not want to work in tech, young men felt that ‘other areas were more appealing (50%), while young women felt that ‘they did not have the skills to work in technology (45%).

Reasons for young men no wanting to work in technology

Reasons for young men not wanting to work in technology
Proportion of young men (%)	Proportion of young men (%)
Other areas more appealing	46%
I won’t have the skills	32%
I don’t know anything about it	22%
It’s not for people like me	21%
Not many tech jobs	15%
Poor working conditions	14%
Other	7%
Friends’/parents’ negative opinion	6%

Reasons for young women no wanting to work in technology

Reasons for young women not wanting to work in technology
Proportion of young women (%)	Proportion of young women (%)
Other areas more appealing	50%
I won’t have the skills	45%
I don’t know anything about it	38%
It’s not for people like me	24%
Not many tech jobs	13%
Poor working conditions	8%
Other	4%
Friends’/parents’ negative opinion	4%