When prime minister Andy Burnham announced this week that schools should adapt their curricula to meet local labour market needs, I understood the instinct. It is clear that we are in danger of losing a generation of young people in the UK and qualifications alone are not enough. We urgently need new ideas, so Burnham’s interventions are a welcome step.

As CEO of Inspiring Girls, I regularly speak to girls aged 11-16 years old and know the issues young people face are myriad, including that girls still face persistent gender stereotypes, confidence gaps and unequal representation in many careers, along with a lack of visible role models.

Career aspirations are already narrowed by societal conditions. Research from 2024 showed that gender stereotypes have stopped nearly half of girls aged 11 to 18 from doing something they want to do. The confidence gap is even starker. Between the ages of eight and 14, girls’ confidence levels drop by 30 per cent while boys' confidence wavers as well, but the gap that opens at age 12 doesn’t close throughout adolescence.

The mechanism is simple: if girls can’t see it, how can they know they can be it? Girls need to see what is possible

At age 14, girls experience their lowest levels of self-assurance, 27 per cent lower than boys report at the same age. This is the precise moment when career aspirations form and girls are losing faith in themselves exactly when they need it most. Add a curriculum narrowed to what your region happens to need right now, and you risk cementing that inequality rather than breaking it.

At Inspiring Girls International, we work across 40 countries, connecting girls with female role models. The mechanism is simple: if girls can’t see it, how can they know they can be it? Girls need to see what is possible. When we connect them with role models, especially role models from different regions, different backgrounds, different possibilities, something shifts. Suddenly what’s possible expands.

The research on aspirations tells us that they're not formed by geography alone. Research from the OECD found that 47 per cent of boys and 53 per cent of girls surveyed in 41 countries expect to work in one of just 10 popular jobs by the age of 30 and those expectations are driven by visibility and stereotypes. When girls’ education is tailored to local jobs, you risk tightening that already narrow band of “acceptable” choices even further.

The charity sector has a vital role to play here, and it’s barely mentioned in education reform conversations. UK programmes like our Girls Mean Business campaign, which is calling for young women to be introduced to entrepreneurship and more female founders, are being launched because we know more girls want to launch their own business, but they don’t know where to start. And they can barely name a female entrepreneur. When you give young people access to role models and exposure to careers beyond their immediate geography, amazing things can happen.

These grassroots interventions are critical to addressing the challenge Alan Milburn’s recent report on youth employment highlighted: nearly a million young people are not in education, employment or training, and the problem is getting worse.

Milburn’s diagnosis was stark. The Neet crisis is grounded in social disadvantage, with young people from lower working-class backgrounds recording a rate of 22 per cent compared with 9 per cent for those from higher professional backgrounds. Technical skills matter for breaking that cycle, but they are not enough on their own.

We're asking girls to solve global problems with a postcode-sized toolkit

The regional devolution Burnham is championing is genuinely important. Local people making local decisions, understanding their own economies, coordinating schools with employers in their area, that’s brilliant. But we can’t confuse local decision-making with local horizons. These are not the same thing.

We live in a global world. The challenges that the next generation faces – climate change, AI, and the future of work – need global ideas and a diverse set of people to create solutions that work for everyone. If girls are told their education should prepare them only for jobs that exist locally, we're asking them to solve global problems with a postcode-sized toolkit.

Technical skills are essential, but so is aspiration. Andy Burnham's reforms could be genuinely transformative if they work. But only if true parity is achieved and they don't mistake tailoring to local needs with limiting young people's horizons.

Only if they build in the role of charities and role models who can show young people what becomes possible when you dream beyond your postcode. The evidence is clear: visibility shifts aspiration. Without it, we'll simply cement the choices the world has already narrowed for young people by age 14.

Amna Ahmad is the CEO of Inspiring Girls International