This study addresses the growing demand for workers with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) backgrounds amid declining interest in STEM careers among adolescents. We explore how learning experiences in secondary education, specifically social robot-based interventions, impact technological career aspirations (TCA), using the framework of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). We hypothesize that participation in a robot-based intervention (N=504 tenth-grade students from Germany), mediated by robot use self-efficacy and interest in technology, influences TCA, with gender moderating these effects. Results from serial mediation analysis confirm our assumptions. Notably, the increase in robot use self-efficacy and, thus indirect in TCA, was observed only in female participants. This study extends SCCT by identifying the opportunity of self-selection as a boundary condition determining the role of gender acting either as an antecedent of learning experiences—if self-selection is possible—or as a conditional influence on the impact of learning experiences on self-efficacy—if self-selection is not possible.
