Vol. 17 No. 2 (2026)
Special Issue: SI_TGEO

The Importance of Connecting Young People, School Geography and Future Careers in Secondary Education

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Emma Rawlings Smith
AQA, UK
Chantal Mayo-Holloway
David Ross Education Trust, Loughborough, UK
Grace Healy
UCL Institute of Education, London, UK | Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK
Rob Jones
David Ross Education Trust, Loughborough, UK
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.e.smi.17.2.114.127
Categories

Published 2026-04-09

Keywords

  • geography education,
  • professional geographers,
  • career-oriented geography,
  • localised curriculum

How to Cite

Rawlings Smith, Emma, Chantal Mayo-Holloway, Grace Healy, and Rob Jones. 2026. “The Importance of Connecting Young People, School Geography and Future Careers in Secondary Education”. European Journal of Geography 17 (2):S.114-S.127. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.e.smi.17.2.114.127.

Copyright (c) 2026 Emma Rawlings Smith, Chantal Mayo-Holloway, Grace Healy, Rob Jones

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2026-01-18
Accepted 2026-04-04
Published 2026-04-09

Abstract

Schools and further education colleges worldwide are increasingly integrating career education into school subjects to raise career awareness, help young people develop the essential knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the workplace and support decision-making about their future education and work choices. Drawing on a mixed-methods study in a multi-academy trust in England, this article considers how geography teachers can meaningfully embed careers education into the school geography curriculum with the support of professional geographers and their real-world knowledge and skills. Findings from a survey (n=439) and interviews with geography teachers and students who visited a major infrastructure project as part of a school-industry partnership (n=22), indicate that immersive learning opportunities in the real-world can develop a deep understanding of contemporary geographical case studies and help young people to make connections between the geography curriculum and geography-oriented careers. The article concludes that school–industry partnerships can empower teachers to deliver high-quality geographical education by combining powerful (disciplinary) knowledge with contemporary real-world insights. These collaborations help young people develop the ability to think geographically, enabling them to better understand our changing world, make informed decisions about their future careers and have the opportunity to engage meaningfully with geography’s transformative potential.

Highlights:

  • The geography curriculum is static, yet the world it seeks to explain is rapidly changing.
  • This disconnect can limit students' ability to engage with contemporary geographies.
  • School-industry partnerships help connect powerful knowledge with real-world insights.
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