Being part of the great ‘leaders of tomorrow’, I was curious about how my fellow ‘leaders’ want to lead- and the best way to do this was to investigate their ideal careers. Do all boys still dream about becoming professional footballers? Are girls still stargazing about the luxurious livelihood of pop-stars? Or do the modern day generation possess more controversial ideas?
I produced a questionnaire regarding my investigation and handed it out to seventy two students in my year. I asked basic questions like ‘What is your ideal career?’ and ‘Do you know what qualifications you need for your ideal career?’, assuming that the majority would at least have a rough idea; but, typically, my assumptions proved me wrong.
Only 63% knew which profession they wanted to work in and a mere 49% of these knew what qualifications were needed! Now I don’t know about you, but in the current employment climate, I imagined that young adults- with only a few years to go before they enter this climate- would at least have some idea of the qualifications they need.
The responses surprised me as they contradicted the stereotypes completely: not even one of the males claimed that they wanted to work in the football field and only 2% of the females would like to work in performing arts. This surprised me as the majority of the generation prior to us dreamed of working in the stated areas.
However, what’s most concerning, is that only 5% knew what the current annum university fees are! The bulk of the correspondents did not know what they currently are and one believed that they were forty thousand per year! I personally found this worrying as people my age should be preparing for what qualifications they need and beginning to think about the potential financial consequences.
So, should we be troubled about the lack of information that the leaders of tomorrow have, or should we just let kids be kids?
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