# You don't know what you don't know; using high school outreach to improve awareness of bioscience-based careers and higher education

## TL;DR

A high school outreach program successfully increased awareness of bioscience careers and higher education among students.

## Contribution

An adaptable outreach program was developed to improve STEM career awareness in socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

## Key findings

- Awareness of bioscience careers increased by 58% after the outreach event.
- Interest in bioscience-based careers rose by 43% among participants.
- Understanding of university requirements for STEM improved by 58%.

## Abstract

When considering the diversity of students in higher education, an important but frequently overlooked characteristic is socioeconomic background. It is well known that those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to progress to higher education, and accounts for an associated lack of diversity in the STEM workplace. The reasons for this are many and complex, though a lack of awareness of STEM-based education thence career pathways among secondary school learners remains a key contributor. To address this, we designed an adaptable and scalable high school outreach programme that sought to raise STEM (with a focus on bioscience) awareness through events that could be readily adapted to meet high school needs and resource constraints. Learner perceptions were recorded using a pre- and post-event questionnaire. Following the event, awareness of bioscience-based careers and the required prerequisite skills and qualifications were increased by 58 and 53 % respectively. The degree to which learners were considering a bioscience-based career was increased by 43 %. Though interest in attending university to study STEM was unaltered, awareness of the qualifications required to progress to university was increased by 58 %. These findings suggest that outreach events are an effective way to raise general awareness of STEM-based higher education learning thence careers and highlight the importance of tailoring outreach events to meet school and learner needs.

•We designed a high school outreach event to raise awareness of STEM careers and HE.•Our outreach events increased interest in bioscience-based careers.•Learner understanding of higher education was improved.•Curriculum-aligned learning was enhanced.

We designed a high school outreach event to raise awareness of STEM careers and HE.

Our outreach events increased interest in bioscience-based careers.

Learner understanding of higher education was improved.

Curriculum-aligned learning was enhanced.