A new study has found that girls who play after-school sport in the UK receive a potential career boost that is the equivalent to a university degree.

The report, produced by Public First, revealed that girls who play after-school sport are 50% more likely to get top jobs later in life.

Yet, despite the obvious benefits to participating in sport, girls are far less likely to play sport, with 11-to-18-year-olds each missing out on 1.4 hours of sport per week compared to boys.

Those numbers equate to 280m hours missed annually, with 340,000 more girls excluded due to cost and lack of local access, according to the research, with one in three girls surveyed feeling that boys had greater access to a wider range of sports, and 29% revealing that boys’ teams got priority bookings for pitches and facilities, which has led many girls to disengage by age 11.

The report praises the attributes that playing sport gives to girls, with the resilience, confidence and adaptability that sport encourages named as a key reason for why women who played extracurricular sport as children were much more likely to reach senior professional roles.

Indeed, the report states that empowering an inactive 18-year-old girl to play sport would, on average, generate a lifetime financial benefit of £30,000.

Sky, which commissioned the report, is calling for the government to take decisive action in enabling more girls to play sport after school, with a prediction that doing so could see the country generate an extra £570m annually in productivity gains whilst also saving the NHS £73m a year.

As well as calling for reform, Sky have also partnered with Alessia Russo and UK charity Goals 4 Girls to launch The Alessia Cup, a new tournament for girls that will create opportunities for teenagers from underserved backgrounds to participate in grassroots football.

The report says that girls are 1.5 times less likely to play team sports than boys, instead opting for fitness classes or solo exercising, meaning they miss out on developing crucial leadership and teamwork skills, with the research also showing that many adult women now regret dropping out of team sports.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has responded to the research, arguing that grassroots access needs to keep up with the increased prevalence of women’s sport on TV.

She said: “Broadcasters in this country are leading the way in promoting women’s sport and giving our outstanding female athletes the platform their talent deserves. But, as the findings of this report show, when it comes to accessing sport at all levels, too often women and girls find the same old barriers still in place.

“Through our Plan for Change, this Government is set on breaking them down. It's why we're investing £400m to bring quality facilities to areas that need them most, shaking up the curriculum to give girls and boys the same access to sport in schools and launched a new Women’s Sport Taskforce to tackle the biggest challenges, from the grassroots to the elite, head on.”