Jobs for the boys (and girls)
September 3rd, 2009 by Alex_GoldupNew research from the Careers Advice Service sheds some light on the career aspirations of kids.
Apparently, girls want to be teachers when they grow up and boys want to be footballers - this will come as a surprise to no-one who has had to spend a rainy, mud-soaked afternoon kicking a half-deflated football around with an over-excited toddler.
It is, however, good to see that kids are almost as likely to want to emulate Richard Branson and Peter Jones as they are the likes of David Beckham and Ronaldo. Entrepreneur was the second most popular dream job for boys and the fifth most popular dream job for girls.
These findings dovetail nicely with an ongoing campaign. We at Make Your Mark towers have always felt strongly that kids are the raw material from which the next generation of brilliant entrpreneurs can be fashioned. That’s why we started our parents campaign, which highlights the key role that parents can play in encouraging enterprise as a career choice.
However, we should ask why – if the results of the survey are taken to be representative – fewer girls aspire to entrepreneurialism than boys. We look forward to the results of next year’s survey, and to seeing a greater equality between the sexes.
September 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Thats very interesting – it doesn’t say how old these boys and girls are though.
I just read something interesting about how people chose their careers – apparently there is a fascination with our names and this affects our career choice. People with names George and Geoffrey are 42% more likely than other names to be in geosciences. People with a name beginning with ‘H’ are 80% more likely to own a hardware shop. And people with a name beginning with ‘R’ are 70% more likely to be roofers (why did they chose these professions I wonder?).
Why Susie Sells Seashells by the Seashore:
Implicit Egotism and Major Life Decisions
Brett W. Pelham, Matthew C. Mirenberg, and John T. Jones
September 4th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I should also mention that a little while ago we wrote a response to the Government arguing that there should be a need to discuss self-employment and entrepreneurship in careers guidance.
http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/publications/consultation_impartial_careers_guidance
I wonder if anyone – particularly the entrepreneurs reading the blog – had any inspiration from their careers guidance? Or indeed felt like they wanted to hear more about this at school?