Deprivation continues to influence children's aspirations according to KidZania & Havas Helia research
Deprivation continues to affect school children in England's aspirations and goals according to a study of 61,000 across England conducted by Havas Helia for London attraction KidZania.
Kidzania - Dentist
The data team at Havas was approached by KidZania asked to perform an audit of the structured data around the activities within the venue and then analyse and map it.
As a result, a correlation between gender and deprivation was found when it came to aspiration, with ‘a good education’ found to offer children the opportunity to aspire to different things as a result of that quality experience.
The research saw every child between the ages of 5 to 14 attending Kidzania wear a digital band that would record their activity while attending the attraction, encouraging them to be independent and learn while away from the influence of any parent of teacher.
This would allow those conducting the research to identify potential differences in children’s behaviour and choices, based on the home background with the opportunity of helping shape future conducts in education.
Those activities undertaken by the children would also be analysed based on the potential influence that each child’s school or home background might have.
Most of the schools that booked were from London, especially from Hammersmith where access to the centre is free, however schools from as far as Scotland were also involved.
Of the children measured, it was found that until the age of 11, more boys participated than girls, which was reversed until the age of 14. The most popular activities were hospitals, department stores, planes, courier services, police and fire stations which would also be found to top their aspirational choices too.
The least popular activities chosen by the children were in the Rightzkeeper’s Residence, an area designed mostly for young children, the Kindergarten, followed by the bank area and the greetings cards shop.
When the children were allowed to choose their first activity at the attraction, almost 6% chose stock manager while under 5% chose walking courier, which was just ahead of firefighting training. Patrolling and pilot training followed, skewed by the number of under privileged schools and the higher number of boys who attended.
Children from outside of London were 32% more likely to choose chocolate making as their first activity, while London children were 44% more likely to choose firefighting training.
Other first activities most likely to be chosen by children from outside of London included Smoothie manufacture (29%), Fruit & Nut Makery Training (27%) and Hamburger cooking (21%).
Also, overall girls were more likely to choose beauty and fashion, food manufacturing, medicine and retails services activities than boys who were more inclined to choose first team coaching, police/guards, technicians/engineers, climbing, firefighting, music and courier services.
Another comparison saw boys being more confident to try activities recommended for older ages.
The research also examined the roles deprivation and gender played in children choosing to undertake other roles such as journalism, TV production, Tattoo transfers and housekeeping.