Boys into HEAL

Here’s a provocation for you: would you be comfortable organising a careers talk that was only for boys?

It’s not as controversial as you may think. After all, we often see this happening for girls to encourage them into STEM careers, because there is a clear need and the approach seems to be working. So what issue do we need to address for boys that is just as pressing?

I recently wrote a piece for the TES about getting boys into HEAL careers (health, education, administration and literacy), because I believe that this is as close as we will get to a panacea for a whole range of issues. How do we tackle misogyny? How do we recruit more teachers? How do we improve mental health outcomes? How do we reduce gender-based violence? So many of these societal problems are linked through the pressures that school-aged boys are under, especially online. If we want to push forward on multiple fronts, we need more men to go into careers in education and healthcare in particular.

There is a very broad range of careers covered by HEAL professions, so I can’t cover them all here. However, I want to be clear that we are not talking about boys aspiring to be headteachers and consultant surgeons. It is not about encouraging them to aim for senior leadership roles. We are talking about the full panoply of HEAL careers, such as early years practitioners, occupational therapists, primary teachers, and mental health nurses. These are just some of the areas where the need is significant in education and healthcare.

Daniel Sim – Early Years Practitioner at Robert Gordon’s College 

Since I’ve started to raise this issue publicly, I’ve had nothing but a positive response. No one is challenging the idea that it would be beneficial to have more men in nurseries, primary schools, and subjects like English. Part of this is about challenging stereotypes and changing parental attitudes. If you have a son, how would you feel if they told you they wanted to be an early years practitioner, or a primary teacher? Would you be surprised? Would you be happy? What would you say to them?

We published a blog for International Men’s Day to celebrate our colleagues at Robert Gordon’s College who work in the Nursery and Junior School, and as we were discussing what to write they told me about the stigma they have faced. There is a natural suspicion about men that want to work with young children, hence the incredibly low representation of male practitioners in early years and primary schools. This needs to change.

Paul Keane – Out of Hours Care Manager at Robert Gordon’s College

To start shifting the lens, we need to start promoting these careers in schools. It’s amazing to think how few boys will have anyone suggest to them that HEAL professions might be for them. It seems that many young men drift into STEM because it is a natural expectation – it fits the stereotypes that men build things, or are good at Maths. If we change up this default position by diversifying our careers messaging, then we can also create more room for girls going into STEM.

I also believe that we need to have higher expectations of boys around nurture, service and emotional intelligence. If we expect them to show these qualities, they will start to exhibit them more. This is part of a wider reframing of masculinity that needs to take place. Boys will only be boys if we expect them to conform to type. Alternatively, if we promote HEAL careers to them because we believe that they can be successful in empathetic professions, they will rise to that challenge. It needs positive reinforcement, and strong role modelling, for the change to take place.

Mark Watson – Junior School Teacher at Robert Gordon’s College

So ask some hard questions in your school. What messaging do you give to boys – and indeed to girls – about HEAL professions? Can you shift the emphasis so that more boys go home and talk to their parents about the career options that are wide open in these fields? When you think about it, young men who embark on HEAL careers with passion and aptitude really are pushing at an open door when it comes to opportunities – and the positive consequences of a gender shift in the national workforce make it a campaign worth pursuing.