Doctor, cricketer, engineer still top careers for urban kids: 7-city survey

What do our kids want to become these days?

Doctor, cricketer, engineer still top careers for urban kids: 7-city survey

 Aug 09 2014 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

Mumbai Children Are Most Open To Becoming Entrepreneurs

The country’s young minds are still preparing to be doctors, cricketers and engineers–the traditional career options for generations. A recent seven-city survey , based on the responses of 65,000 children aged between three and 12 years, shows that almost 29% of them dreamt of becoming a doctor when they grow up.

At 15.8%, cricket was [surprisingly] the second most preferred profession followed by engineering (11.6%), teaching (9.2%) and the police force or defence services (8.2%). The survey was conducted in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

 

While being a doctor was as popular as being a cricketer among boys (23%), it was a clear choice for girls at 36% of the total respondents. At 14%, teaching was the second most preferred option.

Children chose the arts (7%) and government service (3%) over conventional career choices such as pilot (2%), scientist (2%) astronaut (1%) and law (1%). “While interest in government services and arts is a positive story, decline in takers for sciences indicates that we must promote research and pure sciences more. Everyone needs to know that there is more to sciences than just engineering and medicine,” said Jyoti Thakur, vice-principal, Jai Hind College, Churchgate.

Among all the seven cities, Mumbai registered the highest percentage of children wanting to be entrepreneurs. While the national average was 3%, in Mumbai, more than 11% of the children said they wanted to become entrepreneurs. Mumbai included 11,253 of the total respondents. Mumbai’s boys preferred cricket (25.2%) to medicine (18.4%).

The survey also asked parents whether they were preparing to financially support the child’s dream. As many as 81% of them admitted to not knowing what the cost of higher education would be in future. According to the survey, conducted by Aviva Life Insurance, parents save around Rs 4.7 lakh for the child’s higher education even as the cost is expected to be much higher.

Financial experts, though, say the trend is changing and parents are beginning to save ahead of time. “For the past two years, a lot of parents of children sometimes as young as three are also setting their aim on specific universities abroad and beginning to save accordingly. The trend is only picking up now and is expected to grow rapidly, ” said Prasad Chitre who specializes in financial planning for education.