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Balancing caring and career: Exploring the impact of caring responsibilities on educational and employment pathways in the East Midlands

    Cohort 2026 East Midlands Research Placement Project

    About The Project

    People who regularly care for children or family members, particularly young people aged 16-18, often struggle to balance these responsibilities with their education, training, or employment. Caring can take up their time and energy, making it harder to engage in education/training or employment opportunities. Despite this, the challenges young carers face are often unseen in education and career support.

    This project will look at how caring affects the education and work experiences of those with caring responsibility (covering all forms of caring, including parental responisbility), what kinds of support these people need to reach their goals, and to what extent local educational institutions can deliver these interventions.

    he outcomes of this project will help Nottingham College to support their learners with caring responsibility to move forward in education and work, and to provide an evidence base for EMCCA upon which to make policy decisions that will support communities across the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire region.

    Project Aims 

    The overall aims of the project are:

    1. to understand the pressures faced by people who are in education and looking for employment. Working with Nottingham College, this project will try to better understand any stigma or hesitation to ask for help, and where there are examples of good support in local schools and colleges.

    Project Team