Todays kids and what they want to be

[adrian29uk]

Yesterday my girlfriend asked the kids in her group, they are all 14 years old what they would like to be. The results are as follows

1) Law,
2) Vets,
3) Doctors,
4) Accountants
Pop stars,
Professional footballers

and only two kids said they wanted to be a plumber or an electricians.

Without my girlfriend being too rude, she told me probably only 4-5 kids in this group would make it as 1,2,3,4.

I think some of these Kids are setting the bar way to high. There is not enough room for more lawyers, solicitors.

The kids that want to be a plumber or electrician are laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[Starry]

There probably isn't enough room for every 14 year old in the country to do those top four jobs, but I don't think there is anything wrong with children aiming high and having ambitions. Some of them won't make it, but learning that is a life lesson in itself.

My 15 year old nephew has just finished school and is off to Plumber School (or whatever they call it) and an apprenticeship, btw. His friends really ribbed him for it. I guess it's not cool, but he has his heart set on it.

 

[adrian29uk]

Plumbing is a great job. My girlfriends sisters boyfriend is an electrician. He has to work away on nights, but fits out large supermarkets. There is never a week when he comes back with less than £600.00 a week in his pocket after tax. He served an apprenticeship.

My girlfriend has an honours degree in foreign languages, is head of department and earns about £100 a week less.

10 years ago I started working as a trainee tool maker, no I did not make hammers, or chissels, it was tooling for injection moulding machines which required me to do milling, grinding, surface grinding which is a highly skilled job. Yet If I was still in this profession I would probably only be earning around £250.00 a week, the same that I earn now designing websites and fixing computers.

What people do and how they are paid is screwed up.

 

[Brovion]

Yesterday my girlfriend asked the kids in her group, they are all 14 years old what they would like to be. The results are as follows

1) Law,
2) Vets,
3) Doctors,
4) Accountants
Pop stars,
Professional footballers

and only two kids said they wanted to be a plumber or an electricians.

Without my girlfriend being too rude, she told me probably only 4-5 kids in this group would make it as 1,2,3,4.

I think some of these Kids are setting the bar way to high. There is not enough room for more lawyers, solicitors.

The kids that want to be a plumber or electrician are laughing all the way to the bank.

Blimey what's wrong with kids having a bit of ambition? ( When I was 13 I wanted to be an astronaut). I'd be more worried if they all said they wanted to be Social Security Inspectors with decent pension plans.

The problem isn't so much unrealistic adolscent ambitions (and even then your girlfriend's class showed admirable level-headedness as not all of them wanted to be pop stars or footballers) but an education system that is too geared to academic qualifications. The amount of people I see with "Me too" media degrees is depressing.

It's the system that need to change to enourage people to leave school at 16 and get out to work or go to 'plumbing school' as opposed to staying on to take A levels in useless subjects.

 

[Gwylan]

Yesterday my girlfriend asked the kids in her group, they are all 14 years old what they would like to be. The results are as follows

1) Law,
2) Vets,
3) Doctors,
4) Accountants
Pop stars,
Professional footballers

and only two kids said they wanted to be a plumber or an electricians.

Without my girlfriend being too rude, she told me probably only 4-5 kids in this group would make it as 1,2,3,4.

I think some of these Kids are setting the bar way to high. There is not enough room for more lawyers, solicitors.

The kids that want to be a plumber or electrician are laughing all the way to the bank.

I'm impressed actually; those kids show ambition tempered with some realism. A few years ago I was involved in a project in an inner-city London school; a class of 14 and 15-year-old boys were asked the same question and the only three answers were footballers, pop stars and drug dealers - not one kid had any thought for doing anything better. The teachers were in despair but the kids were probably being ambitious in their own way, coming from that background very few were going to make it in the City or in law - sad, but true.

 

[NMH]

So, where are all the future porn-stars going to come from then?

 

[Mrs Coach]

My kids want to be 1. a wrestler 2. a footballer 3. an actress

No plumbers there!

 

[withdeanwombat]

.................and then,reality strikes.

1) Shelfstacking
2) Telesales
3) Order picking
4) Warehouse operative.

My two want
1) Primary teaching
2) To stay at home between the computer music downloads and the Skybox,with occasional visits to the drumsets (yes,plural!),whilst Dobby (me) supplies the food and drink at the computer terminal.

 

[Wozza]

2) To stay at home between the computer music downloads and the Skybox,with occasional visits to the drumsets (yes,plural!),whilst Dobby (me) supplies the food and drink at the computer terminal.

Sounds pretty good. Does it pay much?

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

What people do and how they are paid is screwed up.

welcome to the free market. you asked for it.