Leadership

Drawing The Future

Young people in developing countries often have more aspirational career ambitions than boys in the UK, according to this research by the charity Education and Employers. While boys in the UK aimed to be footballers or YouTube stars, their counterparts in Uganda and Zambia wanted to be doctors or teachers. Leadership Briefing 12.05 (137)

The study asked primary school children, aged seven to 11, in 20 countries to draw pictures of the jobs they wanted to have when they grew up. The careers charity said the results showed how much gender stereotypes were established from an early age.

In the UK, girls were much less likely to want to become engineers or scientists. But jobs such as nurse, dancer and hairdresser were among their top 10 ambitions.

And boys were more likely to want to have jobs such as airline pilot and mechanic. Girls’ top choices were more focused on academic success - with jobs such as teacher, vet and doctor among the most popular.

By contrast, boys seemed to be much more influenced by popular culture, with jobs such as sportsman, working in social media or the police.

In terms of social mobility, the charity said the survey showed young people needed to be introduced to different types of careers at an early age.

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